Stawell Gift
The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest foot race. It is run over every Easter weekend at Central Park, Stawell in western Victoria. The race is run on grass over 120 metres, with competitors handicapped according to their form.
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Contents | |
1 History
2 Format
3 Records
4 External links
5 References
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History
The first Stawell Gift was in 1878, as a fun race between miners at the end of the gold rush. It has been raced every year since, except for four years during the Second World War. Originally it was the townspeople putting together an entertainment package to happen over Easter, complete with 'special trains' to the event. Today it is the most prestigious footrace in Australia, with a $35,000AUD first prize. The event is sponsored by Australia Post and the finals are televised live around Australia.
Format
On the Easter Saturday there are 24 heats, with the winner of each heat going through to the semi finals, and the fastest runners making it to the final.
The Gift is run on a grass track in front of the 100 year-old Stawell Grandstand, and the athletes run in lanes that are seperated by lane ropes.
The idea of the handicap system is that all runners would thoeretically cross the line at the same time. The handicapper works out what mark or handicap the runner will have according to their previous performances in the sprint, currently the most a runner may be handicapped is 11 metres.
The handicapping system usually ends up pitting local runners against international professionals.
Records
Only two people have ever won the race without any handicap, John-Louis Ravelomanantso in 1975 and Joshua Ross in 2005
Only three sprinters have won the race more than once, Bill Howard (1966, 1967) Barry Foley (1970, 1972) and Joshua Ross (2003, 2005)
Recent Winners of the Stawell Gift are
- 2005 - Joshua Ross
- 2004 - Jason Hunte
- 2003 - Joshua Ross
- 2002 - Stuart Uhlmann
- 2001 - Andrew Pym
- 2000 - Jarrem Pearce
- 1999 - Rodney Matthews
- 1998 - D. Seers
- 1997 - D. Millard
- 1996 - S. Hutton
- 1995 - G. Crawford
- 1994 - R. Lewis
- 1993 - J.A. Richardson
- 1992 - A.P. McManus
- 1991 - Steve Brimacombe
- 1990 - D. Capobianco
External links
- Official Website of the Stawell Gift (http://www.stawellgift.com/)
- Tourism Victoria Site (http://www.visitvictoria.com/displayObject.cfm/objectid.0004D64F-4222-1EF2-A1CB80C476A90000/vvt.vhtml)
- Joshua Ross winning the Gift in 2005 (http://www.theage.com.au/news/Sport/Ross-sprints-into-gift-history/2005/03/28/1111862325866.html) from The Age website.
References
- Pandora Internet Archive of the Stawell Gift (http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-23517)
- The Sports Factor Transcript (http://www.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/1998/sportsf/sf980410.htm) Sport and Religion over Easter, April 10 1998
- The ten best footballers at the Stawell Gift (http://www.australianrules.com.au/2005stories/topstawell.html) The Sunday Age on 27 March 2005.
- ABC Asia-Pacific Nexus (http://abcasiapacific.com/nexus/timeout/s1438460.htm) 6 September 2005 Transcript
- Stawell Gift Winners 1978 - 2004 (http://www.stawellgift.com/downloads/gift_winners_since_1878.xls) (Direct link to XLS Spreadsheet)
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