Sprinters downcast at Stawell

TASMANIA’S best professional sprinters were fit and raring to go for a rescheduled Stawell Gift, but they will now reduce their training regimens with the announcement the 2020 event has been scrapped.

The state’s top sprint coach Ray Quarrell was preparing six runners from his stable to compete at the event, traditionally held at Easter, and won twice by Tasmanians in the past seven years — Andrew Robinson in 2013 and Jacob Despard in 2018.

Along with many other sports, the coronavirus pandemic caused the Stawell Athletic Club to postpone its 142year-old three-day running festival in March.

However, it has been forced to cancel the event for the first time since World War II.

“I was taking half a dozen runners over theo Stawell this year but we were half expecting it to be cancelled,” Quarrell said. “We kept training hard to be able to compete there, so it’s a shame. We’ll back them off and get them ready for the summer carnivals.

“We are disappointed, but to have it in November wouldn’t have been the same as its traditional slot at Easter.

“There’s only one Stawell Gift and that’s at Easter.”

Organisers announced their decision yesterday not to try and reschedule the race later in the year, preferring to turn their attention to 2021. Since 1878, the only other years when the Stawell Gift was not contested were 1942-45.

Victorian Dhruv Rodrigues Chico won the men’s 2019 Gift while the women’s was won by Alexia Loizou of Frankston.