I looked up the TV guide this morning to see when the football was going to be televised and saw that channel one was televising the Stawell Gift today. It has always been held on Easter Monday and although I am not really into athletics because its close to my hometown this is one meet that I like to watch.
The heats are held in the lead up with the semi finals and finals on today, we watched while having lunch. Stawell was one of the gold rush towns and the Gift has been going for one hundred and thirty three years.
It is only running and events are held from 50 metres to 1600 metres, the gift itself is the highlight, think Melbourne Cup, as there are others events and distances but the main event is 120 metres. The semi winners were posting times of 12.21 to 12.42 sec, now that is fast! It is a professional race so the runners are handicapped and it is also run on grass/turf not a sealed surface.
Stawell, the township is in the western part of Victoria, a pretty town especially this time of the year with Autumn leaves starting to turn and fall, its on the main highway between Adelaide and Melbourne and besides being known as a gold rush town, it is famous for the Gift.
We used to watch it on TV when I was a kid so it brought back memories of sitting around the TV with family, I guess because it was "just over the border".
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