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 1970s and 1980s 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
Read more about this topic: Victorian Athletic League