By Colin MacGillivray

There was drama aplenty at Stawell’s Central Park during the Easter weekend as one of the largest crowds in recent history turned out to watch the Stawell Gift.

While teenage sprinting wunderkind Gout Gout and his 21-year-old rival Lachie Kennedy – two of the event’s biggest drawcards – were bundled out of the men’s gift in the semi finals, Olympian Bree Rizzo became only the second competitor in the history of the women’s gift to win from scratch.

Rizzo defied the odds to win after sporadic rain made for a heavy track, blitzing home to win in 13.52 seconds – the second-fastest winning time in women’s gift history since the event was changed from 100 to 120 metres in 2006.

In the men’s final it was South Australian school teacher John Evans who made the most of his frontmarker status, racing off a handicap of 9.75 metres to win in 11.94 seconds after pipping Gout at the line in their semi final earlier in the day.

Organisers reported the biggest crowd figures since the 1980s during the meet, with more than 6000 spectators on Saturday and estimates of nearly 9000 in attendance to watch Monday’s finals despite the damp weather.

Tipped as an international sprinting star of the future and drawing comparisons to a young Usain Bolt, Gout was a crowd favourite, engaging with fans after his heat and semi final. Despite failing to qualify for the final after attempting to make up 8.75 metres on Evans in his semi final, Gout said he loved his debut Stawell Gift experience. “Obviously running in the rain is a bit harder than usual, but you can’t control the weather so you just keep running,” he said.

“I thought I was coming pretty hard. With 20 metres left Evans was pretty far ahead of me, so I tried my hardest and he got me at the end. It is what it is – good run. This meet is incredible and the crowd is incredible.”

The winners

Evans said he was determined to make the most of a favourable handicap but admitted he was nervous as Gout chased him in the semi final.

“At the finish I looked across and saw him next to me, and I thought one or two more steps and he would’ve had me,” he said.

“It’s pretty exciting. I just run pros, and I’m not going to be running alongside the likes of Gout Gout and Lachie Kennedy again. It’s a fantastic opportunity. I get to tell two of my kids I did that now.

“This is my sixth time here. I knew it was a good handicap. I knew I could work something off of that, and I just had to train hard, push hard and see what I could do from it.”

Rizzo, the wife of 2017 men’s gift winner Matt Rizzo, said she was still coming to grips with her victory.

“I knew that I had to bring my best, and that I did to run a 13.5 … is massive for me,” she said.

“I’m so proud I could bring it in that moment, because that was the best feeling ever. It’s such an historic, prestigious win.”

Rizzo said winning the Stawell Gift was on an equal footing with racing at the Olympics as a career achievement.

“It’s a little bit more rewarding off scratch, but wherever you win from is absolutely incredible at the Stawell Gift,” she said.

“This is a whole different ballgame to the Olympics. They’re so different and they’re both so special in their own unique ways, so to be at both of them is crazy.”

Other results

Another big name at the meet was Olympic middle-distance runner Peter Bol, who returned to Central Park after a thrilling second-place finish in the invitational 1000-metre race in 2024.

Running off scratch again, Bol was unable to improve on last year’s result, finishing third in a time of 2:23.58, more than four seconds behind the winner Peyton Craig.

Several youngsters from the Wimmera region also ran at the gift in Little Athletics Victoria events.

Horsham’s Mitchell Sawyer reached the final of the boys 100m event, finishing seventh in a close race, while Jett Hill was ninth in the mixed 800m final.

Another Horsham Little Athlete, James Burton, missed the boys 100m final after finishing eighth in his semi final, while Horsham’s Hannah Plazzer and Stawell’s Willow McDougall both reached the semi finals of the girls 100m event, finishing seventh and eighth respectively.

Organisers thrilled

Stawell Athletic Club president Shevahn Healy said the atmosphere had been ‘absolutely electric’ during her first year at the helm.

“Coming into this as my first year has been awesome. How can you top it?” she said.

“It has set the bar absolutely high. The amount of special runners that we’ve had has been amazing, and the crowd is electric. It’s been phenomenal. I’d guess we had a crowd of about 8000 or 9000 on Monday and about 6000 on Saturday. 

“It’s huge. This is what it was like back in the ’80s.”

Northern Grampians Shire Council Mayor Karen Hyslop was equally impressed with the event.

“It’s been an amazing year. The crowd has just been overwhelming,” she said.

“They’re really interactive. There’s a lot of positive energy here, which is great. People are really getting behind the runners and supporting them.”

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