It took a while, but Bathurst basketballer Keelan Crawford has finally tasted success with the New South Wales side, winning a gold medal at the Australian Special Olympics.

Crawford not only played for NSW, but captained his state to victory last Friday as well, as they overthrew the perennially successful Victorians on their home court.

He has been a part of the state side for the best part of eight years and has a handful of medals to his name from the annual Ivor Burge Trophy as well as the Special Olympics held every four years.

But never Crawford has been on the right side of a gold medal game.

“As soon as we realised we’d won, it was a pretty exciting feeling,” he said.

“Victoria have been the dominant team and we’ve had a hard time getting past them, so it was great to finally do it.

“It was a fairly back-and-forth sort of game, Victoria led early at quarter-time and we were a bit flat, but once we started to get into the game it was quite even.”

The only blemish on the NSW side’s record across the tournament was a one-point loss to South Australia on the opening day. The came in frustrating circumstances.

With just a second on the clock, three free-throws to the South Australians saw them move into the lead.

In the end it didn’t impact the overall outcome of the tournament and Crawford can now say that he has led his side to the top of the tree.

Along with one team-mate, he is the longest-serving member of the squad and will almost certainly be in charge on the court once more when NSW head to next year’s Ivor Burge competition.

But there is another major event on the horizon that Crawford needs to ready himself for, and his status as the captain of a national champion team should ensure he is in the selection mix.

“They haven’t announced the Australian team for the Special Olympics in Los Angeles yet, I think they are going to be looking at doing that sometime around Christmas,” he said.

“I went to Athens four years ago and had a great time.

“Being captain of the winning team helps, but I’ll have to wait and see whether that is enough to get me in or not.

“I felt like I played pretty well in Melbourne, I was pretty consistent across all the games I thought.”