Stawell Gift 2013 - Asafa Powell

Pisco Sour

The Stawell Gift Festival takes place this weekend and they've managed to lure Asafa Powell down to the tiny town of Stawell, Victoria, Australia to run in one of the world's most famous handicapped footraces, the feature event, the Stawell Gift, a 120m race on a grass track up a slight incline, with athletes starting at various points based on current form. The event has been running since 1878 and is broadcast live every Easter Monday in Australia. Prize money for winning the event is $40,000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stawell_Gift

Asafa Powell, unsurprisingly, will be starting off scratch. Only 2 athletes in the history of the event have won off scratch, Jean-Louis Ravelomanantsoa in 1968 (an Olympic 100m finalist in 1968) and Australian Josh Ross in 2005. So Asafa really has his work cut out and will have to close as much as 12m on some athletes. Kim Collins and Michael Frater have both failed in recent years to make it past the semi finals.

Heats are today, with the semi finals and final on Easter Monday. A lot of hype going on with Asafa so fingers crossed he can make it to the final.

Here's a video of Josh Ross winning from scratch in 2005. He's in the race again this year but only has a 1m head start on Powell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqDI-fFpIRM

Pisco Sour

Powell out of Stawell Gift. Pulled a hamstring. What a disappointment.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/more-sport/asafa-powell-pulls-out-of-stawell-gift-with-tight-hamstring/story-fndukor0-1226609444589

HEAT 11 Result Name Adj Time Lane H’Cap
1Completed Andrew BOUDRIE 12.178 3 9
2Completed David AFATH 12.264 2 7.5
3Completed Asafa POWELL 12.319 1 0
4Completed Tom PAAVOLA 12.432 4 9.25
5Completed Jesse MATTHEWS 12.493 5 10.5
6Completed Matthew D'ASTOLI 12.610 6 12

http://www.stawellgift.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/R-Australia-Post-Stawell-Gift-%E2%80%93-120m-HEATS.pdf

drquirky

Read about this as Sonia O'Sullivan posted a link on Twitter. Very cool sounding event. You ever been to it Pisco?

thirstywork2

The year I was in ozz I remember it being big in the papers and a big gamble on the winner.It's like a horse race meet as they can bet on the outcome.

Pisco Sour

drquirky wrote: »

Read about this as Sonia O'Sullivan posted a link on Twitter. Very cool sounding event. You ever been to it Pisco?

I haven't been up to it yet, and wont be again this year. It's a bit of hassle to get to the town where it's held. Without a car it's a nightmare by public transport and the town is very small so accommodation books up quickly so you need to stay in towns 30 mins away, which again without a car isn't practical.

If I'm still here next year I may consider running it. One of my training partners was running it today. Excluding the Stawell Gift race itself which caps headstarts at 12m, all the other races anybody can be competitive as there aren't limits on headstarts. Tamysn Lewis is running off scratch in the 400m and has to make up as much as 61m on some girls.

Great video here of Cathy Freeman running through the field from scratch in 1996:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUQLV4gnWNY

Pisco Sour

Pretty certain I saw David Gillick there on the TV congratulating the winner of the 400m at the Stawell Gift today. In any case, he has tweeted about it:

Would love to get a similar thing to the Stawell Gift going in Ireland! Everyone loves a bet and its not always the fastest wins!!

He also retweeted the below:

Stawell Gift is also an example of how athletics should correctly market itself. Lot's opportunities for sponsors to get value for money

I think he has a point. I've noticed the nature of this festival (betting, handicapping, ladies day etc) has people who don't normally follow athletics interested in the sport. Granted the history and tradition of the event here helps and it would be a lot harder to build such prestige from scratch in Ireland, but could a well marketed and televised event just like this in Ireland be the way to build the profile of the sport?

Chivito550

For whoever is interested, here's an interview with Mitchell Williams-Swain, who won the Stawell Gift in 2011, and was a close second this year: http://www.therunningreview.com/2013/09/13/athlete-qa-mitchell-williams-swain/