Victorian Athletic League
Encyclopedia
The Victorian Athletic League organises professional footrunning events ranging from 70 to 3200 metres. The most famous of these events is the Stawell Gift
which has been run since 1878 and hosts the richest footrace in Australia
. Many other gifts are held around Victoria in country and metro locations including Ballarat, Bendigo, Wangaratta, Maryborough
, Keilor, Yarrawonga, Ringwood
, Rye
and Olympic Park
. Races are run under a handicap system which makes races competitive. Each race has a different handicap limit. Generally, the greater the sum of the prizemoney for a race, the less handicap is available, limiting the class of runners that can win. Runners are awarded prizemoney when making finals and bookmaking occurs at major meets.
It was against this background that early settlers arrived in the Australian colonies from the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century.
In Australia professional foot-racing is said to have begun in the gold-mining days. The miners raced against each other, often in a one-to-one match-race situation on a handicap basis for the gift of a gold nugget offered by the local publican or mine owner.
It was at this time that the main sprint race came to be run over the Sheffield distance of 130 yards, regarded as a true test for professional sprinters. This sprint distance originated from the Sheffield Handicap event in Yorkshire over 130 yards in which the winner was presented with a purse of gold. The metric equivalent of 120 metres has been used in gift races since the mid seventies.
The 'Mecca' of professional foot-running in Australia is the Stawell Gift Carnival which has been held during Easter for over one hundred years.
However, its status as the richest carnival has been superseded in recent years by the Botany Bay Gift Carnival which boasts total prizemoney of $120,000 and $70,000 for its main race with a $50,000 first prize. The Stawell Carnival has a total prizemoney pool of $90,000. The main race the Stawell gift is over 120m and the winner receives $40, 000.
There are many other carnivals and events conducted under handicap foot-running conditions throughout the nation each year.
Some of the more famous long-running carnivals are the Bay Sheffield Carnival in South Australia, Bendigo and Ballarat in Victoria, Burnie in Tasmania, Jupiters Carnival on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Temora and Macksville Carnivals in New South Wales. Since the late 1980s athletics and the Olympic Games have been 'open', meaning that the so-called amateurs and professionals can all compete together for prizemoney without being penalised or discriminated against.
In the 1860s big money began to creep into the sport which attracted a wealth of athletic talent. Competitions took on a carnival atmosphere and crowds flocked to see local champions. In April 1878, nearly two thousand people witnessed the running of the first Stawell Easter Gift which was won by 24-year-old farmer W.J.Millard. The sport of professional running continued to grow. Big prizemoney and heavy betting attracted talented athletes as well as a range of shady characters.
By the early 1890s, the sport of professional running was in crisis. Athletes running under false names, hiding past performance, corrupt officials and other controversies led the need to establish a controlling body for professional running in Victoria. The Victorian Athletic League was formed on 15 April 1895 when RV Lewis of Benalla was elected president and Hastings Bell of Stawell was appointed secretary. Originally the League was administered from Stawell and formulated rules and regulations for country towns that conducted sports carnivals. It also acted as arbitrator in any disputes arising at those carnivals.
In 1902 a regular office was established in Melbourne and the Victorian Athletic League began to promote the sport of professional running. Carnivals were held in Melbourne and major Victorian towns and became extremely popular with the sporting public. 1917, a dispute over prizemoney led to a breakaway group, the Victorian Athletic Association, being formed and conducting event in opposition to the Victorian Athletic League. In 1921, through the mediation of the Stawell Athletic Club, the Victorian Athletic League and the Victorian Athletic Association were merged. ES Herring of Maryborough was elected president and Joe Bull appointed as secretary. The Victorian Athletic League established an office in Brunswick and held mid week sports meetings were held at White City in Tottenham, at the Exhibition Grounds and at the Monodrome. During the 1920s and 1930's, popularity of professional running grew tremendously and the VAL staged World Sprint Championships.
At the outbreak of World War II, many Victorian Athletic League clubs abandoned their meetings. However, the federal cabinet granted permission for the Victorian Athletic League to conduct footrunning at Maribyrnong for the benefit of athletes on leave from the armed forces and men employed in essential services. After World War II the Victorian Athletic League gained strength and had nearly fifteen hundred registered runners, three hundred trainers and was conducted sports carnivals at seventy centres across Victoria from mid November to early June.
By the early 1960s, interest in professional running had waned. The number of registered runners had declined and only twenty-eight carnivals were held across Victoria. In an effort to revive the sport, the Victorian Athletic League invited champion international athletes such as Bob Hayes, Alan Simpson and Robbie Hutchison to compete in Australia. In 1969, the St Kilda club staged the richest footrace in the world with a first prize of $2,000. In 1977, the Victorian Athletic League undertook substantial administrative changes becoming an incorporated company, establishing a computerised record of handicaps and results, and commissioning the use of an electronic race finish recording machine. After years of segregation between amateur and professional athletics, in 1986 saw the dawning of open athletics when Stawell Gift winners Chris Perry and John Dinan competed for Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
In recent years, the Victorian Athletic League has extended its athletic format beyond club carnivals. The League moved into conducting special events such as the famous Dandy Dollar Dash at VFL/AFL football matches, the Moomba Mile run down Bourke Street in the Melbourne CBD, 400 metres series' during international cricket matches at the MCG and sprint events during horse races at Moonee Valley. In 2001, the Victorian Athletic League moved offices to be co-located with Athletics Victoria at Olympic Park in Melbourne. The League began to form a strong alliance with Athletics Victoria through formal affiliation, sharing resources and establishing a dual-registration process.
- Cathy Freeman
- Linford Christie
- Robert De Castella
- Josh Ross
- Jana Rawlinson
- Tamsyn Lewis
- Nova Peris-Kneebone
- Melinda Gainsford-Taylor
- Madeline Pape (Australian Olympian)
- Bola Lawal (Nigerian Olympian)
- George McNeil
(Scotland)
- J.L. Ravelomanantsoa (Madagascar)
- Rick Dunbar
Past Winners 2000-2007 (Mens)
2000 R Devalle
2001 M Moresi
2002 C Touhy
2003 C Foley
2004 C Dunbar
2005 G Brown
2006 D Burgess
2007 M Callard
Past Winners 2000-2007 (Women's)
2000 A Fearnley
2001 J Chehadei
2002 K Moore
2003 A Deery
2004 A Deary
2004 A Deery
2006 C White
2007 K Steward
Past Winners
2003 E King
2004 G Mawer
2005 J Hooper
2006 J Boulton
2007 C White
Past Winners
2000 P Walsh
2001 M Callard
2002 E Everton
2003 J Hilditch (Scotland)
2004 J Lewis
2005 D Arthur
2006 J Boulton
2007 A Flanagan
After traditionally being held in February since inception, in 2010 the Ballarat Gift was moved to the weekend after the Stawell Easter Gift (April). With the assistance of the Goldfields Council, the Gift was worth a record $40,000. With all six Stawell Gift finalists entered, the 2010 Ballarat Gift final featured four of them including Stawell Gift winner Tom Burbidge. The Gift was won by 44-year-old Ballarat based, self trained athlete, Peter O'Dwyer. It was O'Dwyer's second Ballarat Gift after winning the race in 1996.
Past Winners (since it was resurrected in 1989)
Past Winners
2003 Duncan Tippins
2004 Mark Howard
2005 Nathan Dixon
2006 Tommy Neim
2007 Nick Magree
2008 Glenn Stephens
is considered the country's and quite possibly world's most prestigious professional footrace. Over 120m it is televised across the country and thousands are at Stawell
every year at Easter.
History of finalists:
http://www.stawellgift.com/images/stories/documents/stawell%20gift%20winners%20since%201878.xls
Stawell Gift
The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short distance running race. It is run over every Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, Stawell in the Grampian Mountains district of western Victoria.The race is run on grass...
which has been run since 1878 and hosts the richest footrace in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Many other gifts are held around Victoria in country and metro locations including Ballarat, Bendigo, Wangaratta, Maryborough
Maryborough
Maryborough may refer to:* Maryborough, Queensland, a town in Australia** Electoral district of Maryborough, Queensland* Maryborough, Victoria, another town in Australia* The pre-1922 name of Port Laoise in the Republic of Ireland...
, Keilor, Yarrawonga, Ringwood
Ringwood
Ringwood is a historic market town and civil parish in Hampshire, England, located on the River Avon, close to the New Forest and north of Bournemouth. It has a history dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, and has held a weekly market since the Middle Ages....
, Rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
and Olympic Park
Olympic Park
An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics complex in the case of the summer games, or the main...
. Races are run under a handicap system which makes races competitive. Each race has a different handicap limit. Generally, the greater the sum of the prizemoney for a race, the less handicap is available, limiting the class of runners that can win. Runners are awarded prizemoney when making finals and bookmaking occurs at major meets.
History of Professional Running
Professional foot-racing or pedestrianism as it was often called, has its origins in the mid-eighteenth century when the Industrial Revolution was occurring and English public schools and the wider community were becoming very interested in games and sporting pursuits. One of these sporting pursuits was pedestrianism which was the act of rapidly covering a variety of distances on foot, distances which ranged from shorter sprints to the coverage of hundreds of miles. These activities were often accompanied by substantial wagers with large sums of money being won and lost.It was against this background that early settlers arrived in the Australian colonies from the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century.
In Australia professional foot-racing is said to have begun in the gold-mining days. The miners raced against each other, often in a one-to-one match-race situation on a handicap basis for the gift of a gold nugget offered by the local publican or mine owner.
It was at this time that the main sprint race came to be run over the Sheffield distance of 130 yards, regarded as a true test for professional sprinters. This sprint distance originated from the Sheffield Handicap event in Yorkshire over 130 yards in which the winner was presented with a purse of gold. The metric equivalent of 120 metres has been used in gift races since the mid seventies.
Present Day Professional Footrunning
Professional foot-racing has been conducted throughout Australia using prizemoney provided by sponsors since the eighteen-hundreds. Each state has a circuit of carnivals directed by its State Athletic League operating under the Australian Athletic Confederation.The 'Mecca' of professional foot-running in Australia is the Stawell Gift Carnival which has been held during Easter for over one hundred years.
However, its status as the richest carnival has been superseded in recent years by the Botany Bay Gift Carnival which boasts total prizemoney of $120,000 and $70,000 for its main race with a $50,000 first prize. The Stawell Carnival has a total prizemoney pool of $90,000. The main race the Stawell gift is over 120m and the winner receives $40, 000.
There are many other carnivals and events conducted under handicap foot-running conditions throughout the nation each year.
Some of the more famous long-running carnivals are the Bay Sheffield Carnival in South Australia, Bendigo and Ballarat in Victoria, Burnie in Tasmania, Jupiters Carnival on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Temora and Macksville Carnivals in New South Wales. Since the late 1980s athletics and the Olympic Games have been 'open', meaning that the so-called amateurs and professionals can all compete together for prizemoney without being penalised or discriminated against.
History of the Victorian Athletic League
The Victorian Athletic League was established in 1895. Professional running in Australia began in the gold-mining days and boomed in areas where miners were prospecting and digging for gold. The miners raced against each other for the gift of a gold nugget offered by the local publican or mine owner. The miners raced over various distances but the main race was run over the Sheffield distance of 130 yards.In the 1860s big money began to creep into the sport which attracted a wealth of athletic talent. Competitions took on a carnival atmosphere and crowds flocked to see local champions. In April 1878, nearly two thousand people witnessed the running of the first Stawell Easter Gift which was won by 24-year-old farmer W.J.Millard. The sport of professional running continued to grow. Big prizemoney and heavy betting attracted talented athletes as well as a range of shady characters.
By the early 1890s, the sport of professional running was in crisis. Athletes running under false names, hiding past performance, corrupt officials and other controversies led the need to establish a controlling body for professional running in Victoria. The Victorian Athletic League was formed on 15 April 1895 when RV Lewis of Benalla was elected president and Hastings Bell of Stawell was appointed secretary. Originally the League was administered from Stawell and formulated rules and regulations for country towns that conducted sports carnivals. It also acted as arbitrator in any disputes arising at those carnivals.
In 1902 a regular office was established in Melbourne and the Victorian Athletic League began to promote the sport of professional running. Carnivals were held in Melbourne and major Victorian towns and became extremely popular with the sporting public. 1917, a dispute over prizemoney led to a breakaway group, the Victorian Athletic Association, being formed and conducting event in opposition to the Victorian Athletic League. In 1921, through the mediation of the Stawell Athletic Club, the Victorian Athletic League and the Victorian Athletic Association were merged. ES Herring of Maryborough was elected president and Joe Bull appointed as secretary. The Victorian Athletic League established an office in Brunswick and held mid week sports meetings were held at White City in Tottenham, at the Exhibition Grounds and at the Monodrome. During the 1920s and 1930's, popularity of professional running grew tremendously and the VAL staged World Sprint Championships.
At the outbreak of World War II, many Victorian Athletic League clubs abandoned their meetings. However, the federal cabinet granted permission for the Victorian Athletic League to conduct footrunning at Maribyrnong for the benefit of athletes on leave from the armed forces and men employed in essential services. After World War II the Victorian Athletic League gained strength and had nearly fifteen hundred registered runners, three hundred trainers and was conducted sports carnivals at seventy centres across Victoria from mid November to early June.
By the early 1960s, interest in professional running had waned. The number of registered runners had declined and only twenty-eight carnivals were held across Victoria. In an effort to revive the sport, the Victorian Athletic League invited champion international athletes such as Bob Hayes, Alan Simpson and Robbie Hutchison to compete in Australia. In 1969, the St Kilda club staged the richest footrace in the world with a first prize of $2,000. In 1977, the Victorian Athletic League undertook substantial administrative changes becoming an incorporated company, establishing a computerised record of handicaps and results, and commissioning the use of an electronic race finish recording machine. After years of segregation between amateur and professional athletics, in 1986 saw the dawning of open athletics when Stawell Gift winners Chris Perry and John Dinan competed for Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
In recent years, the Victorian Athletic League has extended its athletic format beyond club carnivals. The League moved into conducting special events such as the famous Dandy Dollar Dash at VFL/AFL football matches, the Moomba Mile run down Bourke Street in the Melbourne CBD, 400 metres series' during international cricket matches at the MCG and sprint events during horse races at Moonee Valley. In 2001, the Victorian Athletic League moved offices to be co-located with Athletics Victoria at Olympic Park in Melbourne. The League began to form a strong alliance with Athletics Victoria through formal affiliation, sharing resources and establishing a dual-registration process.
Athletes that have run in Professional Footrunning Events
(Include VAL, SAAL, QAL, NSWAL, TAL)- Cathy Freeman
Cathy Freeman
Catherine Astrid Salome "Cathy" Freeman, OAM is former Australian sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame.Freeman was the first ever Aboriginal...
- Linford Christie
Linford Christie
Linford Cicero Christie OBE is a former sprinter from the United Kingdom. He is the only British man to have won gold medals in the 100 metres at all four major competitions open to British athletes: the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games...
- Robert De Castella
Robert de Castella
Robert Francois de Castella, MBE is an Australian former world champion marathon runner. He is widely known as "Deek" or "Deeks" to the Australian public, and "Tree" to his competitors due to his thick legs and inner calm...
- Josh Ross
- Jana Rawlinson
Jana Rawlinson
Jana Pittman-Rawlinson is an Australian athlete, who specialises in the 400 metres run and 400 metre hurdles events. She is a two-time world champion in the 400 m hurdles, from 2003 and 2007...
- Tamsyn Lewis
Tamsyn Lewis
Tamsyn Carolyn Lewis is an Australian athlete and middle-distance runner, who has won a total of seventeen Australian Championships at 400 metres, 800 metres and 400m hurdles....
- Nova Peris-Kneebone
Nova Peris-Kneebone
Nova Maree Peris, AO, is an Australian athlete. She was a representative in the Australian Women's Hockey team at the 1996 Summer Olympics becoming the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal.In 1997, she switched sports to athletics and a year later she became a double gold...
- Melinda Gainsford-Taylor
Melinda Gainsford-Taylor
Melinda Gainsford-Taylor is a retired Australian athlete, who specialised in sprint events.In 1995 Gainsford-Taylor won the World Indoor championship over 200 m...
- Madeline Pape (Australian Olympian)
- Bola Lawal (Nigerian Olympian)
- George McNeil
George McNeil
George McNeil is a former professional ice hockey player and coach.He played for the Richmond Hawks, Brighton Tigers and Earls Court Rangers in the English National League and for the Dundee Tigers in the Scottish National League prior to the Second World War.He may be best- remembered as a coach...
(Scotland)
- J.L. Ravelomanantsoa (Madagascar)
- Rick Dunbar
Rye Gift
Held usually around January every year the Rye Gift attracts tourists celebrating the Christmas period and New Year. It has bookies and the track for the 120m is on a slight decline.Past Winners 2000-2007 (Mens)
2000 R Devalle
2001 M Moresi
2002 C Touhy
2003 C Foley
2004 C Dunbar
2005 G Brown
2006 D Burgess
2007 M Callard
Past Winners 2000-2007 (Women's)
2000 A Fearnley
2001 J Chehadei
2002 K Moore
2003 A Deery
2004 A Deary
2004 A Deery
2006 C White
2007 K Steward
Ringwood
Hosted by the Ringwood Professional Athletic club this event is held usually in January. Its gift has ranged from 120m, 200m and 400m over the years. Currently the Gift race is held over 400m.Past Winners
2003 E King
2004 G Mawer
2005 J Hooper
2006 J Boulton
2007 C White
Wangaratta
This event attracts both VAL and NSWAL competitors because of the close proximity of the event. Professional cycling events are also held at the same time as the footrunning.Past Winners
2000 P Walsh
2001 M Callard
2002 E Everton
2003 J Hilditch (Scotland)
2004 J Lewis
2005 D Arthur
2006 J Boulton
2007 A Flanagan
Ballarat
The Ballarat Gift as a strong history dating back to 1949. It has been held at City Oval, Sebastopol Oval and Northern Oval where VFL team the Northern Bullants play. It was first conducted in 1949 and won by Ted Marantelli. During much of the 1970's and 1980's the only Gift conducted in Ballarat was the Sebastopol Gift. After the demise of the Sebatopol Gift in 1988, the Ballarat Gift returned to the VAL calendar in 1989 at the City Oval.After traditionally being held in February since inception, in 2010 the Ballarat Gift was moved to the weekend after the Stawell Easter Gift (April). With the assistance of the Goldfields Council, the Gift was worth a record $40,000. With all six Stawell Gift finalists entered, the 2010 Ballarat Gift final featured four of them including Stawell Gift winner Tom Burbidge. The Gift was won by 44-year-old Ballarat based, self trained athlete, Peter O'Dwyer. It was O'Dwyer's second Ballarat Gift after winning the race in 1996.
Past Winners (since it was resurrected in 1989)
- 2010 Peter O'Dwyer
- 2009 Rod Matthews
- 2008 Bola Lawal (Nigeria)
- 2007 Nick Sampieri
- 2006 Nathan Dixon
- 2005 Warwick Vale
- 2004 Victor Oyanedal
- 2003 Scott Beaven
- 2002 Bett Blanco
- 2001 John Cara
- 2000 Darren Paull
- 1999 Chris Pattison
- 1998 Robert Ballard (NSW)
- 1997 Shaun White
- 1996 Peter O'Dwyer
- 1995 Vince Cavallo
- 1994 Andrew Paull
- 1993 Tony Birrell
- 1992 Mark Ladbrook
- 1991 Chris Russell
- 1990 Peter Bennetto
- 1989 Peter Bennetto
Bendigo
The Bendigo Opal is held around March every year and conincides with the International Cycling Madison. It holds the richest 400m footrace in the world.Past Winners
2003 Duncan Tippins
2004 Mark Howard
2005 Nathan Dixon
2006 Tommy Neim
2007 Nick Magree
2008 Glenn Stephens
Stawell Gift
The Stawell GiftStawell Gift
The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short distance running race. It is run over every Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, Stawell in the Grampian Mountains district of western Victoria.The race is run on grass...
is considered the country's and quite possibly world's most prestigious professional footrace. Over 120m it is televised across the country and thousands are at Stawell
Stawell
There are a number of settlements named Stawell:* Stawell, Somerset, in England* Stawell, Victoria, in AustraliaOther uses* HMAS Stawell, a Bathurst class corvette named after the Australian settlement...
every year at Easter.
Stawell Gift Winners 1990-2010
- 2010 Tom Burbidge, Canberra (ACT)
- 2009 Aaron Stubbs, Kurrawa (QLD)
- 2008 Sam Jamieson, Williamstown (VIC)
- 2007 Nathan Allen, Toowoomba (QLD)
- 2006 Adrian Mott, Essendon (VIC)
- 2005 Joshua Ross, Gillieston(NSW)
- 2004 Jason Hunte, Barbados
- 2003 Joshua RossJoshua RossJoshua Ross is an Australian track and field sprinter. He spent his early childhood in south western Sydney and moved with his family to the Central Coast at around age seven. He went to Woy Woy Public School and Henry Kendall High School...
, North Lambton (NSW) - 2002 Stuart Uhlmann, Cedar Grove (QLD)
- 2001 Andrew Pym, South Riverview (NSW)
- 2000 Jarram Pearce, Wodonga (VIC)
- 1999 Rod Matthews, Buninyong (VIC)
- 1998 Dale Seers, Edithvale (VIC)
- 1997 Daniel Millard, Mt Gambier (SA)
- 1996 Steve Hutton, Alberton (SA)
- 1995 Glenn Crawford, Katamatite (VIC)
- 1994 Rod Lewis, Ringwood (VIC)
- 1993 Jason RichardsonJason RichardsonJason Anthoney "J-Rich" Richardson is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association.A 6'6", 225 lb...
, Caulfield South (VIC) - 1992 Andrew McManus, Essendon (VIC)
- 1991 Steve BrimacombeSteve BrimacombeSteve Brimacombe is an Australian athletics coach and former runner.Under the tutelage of renowned Scottish coach Jim Bradley , Brimacombe won the 1991 Stawell Gift. A fortnight after winning the Australian 200m title, Brimacombe finished 2nd in the 1994 Stawell Gift off scratch...
, Eltham (VIC) - 1990 Dean CapobiancoDean CapobiancoDean Capobianco is an Australian businessman and former athlete. As an athlete he is best known as a sprinter. He won the 1990 Stawell Gift.-Athletics:...
, Kalamunda (WA)
History of finalists:
http://www.stawellgift.com/images/stories/documents/stawell%20gift%20winners%20since%201878.xls
External links
- http://www.val.org.au/
- http://www.stawellgift.com/
- http://web.archive.org/web/20020208042218/http://www.geocities.com/~ewen/r2002_01.html
- http://www.myspace.com/victorianathleticleague