Burnie Gift


The Burnie Gift is a professional footrace held in Burnie, Tasmania during an annual sports carnival. The carnival was traditionally held on New Year's Day, but switched to New Year's Eve in 2019. Two carnivals were held in 2019.
First run in 1885, the race is conducted by the Tasmanian Athletic League in conjunction with the Burnie Athletic Club. The race is held on a grass track at West Park Oval in Burnie. A sprint event, the Burnie Gift is conducted over the traditional 'Gift' distance of 120 metres. Prior to 1973 the distance was 130 yards. The Women's Gift was introduced in 1995, although was known for the first few years as the Women's 120m Handicap.
Athletes are allocated handicaps with a range from scratch to the current limit of 12.00 metres. An athlete off 12.00m would run 108 metres. Most athletes run from a handicap between 5.0m and 10.0m, thereby covering anywhere from 115m to 110m. Handicaps are assigned by a panel based on an assessment of each athlete’s track performances.
Athletes are separated by lane ropes as opposed to painted lanes on synthetic tracks. The finish line is a finishing gate that each athlete must run through to record a time.
The Burnie Carnival is the premier running carnival in Tasmania and is considered one of the 'big three' professional Gifts in Australia along with Victoria's Stawell Gift and the Bay Sheffield in South Australia. Along with the feature event, the Burnie carnival includes races over 90m, 400m and 1600m. The Burnie carnival is one of three Tasmanian Christmas Carnivals conducted over a seven-day period from 26 December to January 1. The other carnivals are held at Latrobe and Devonport.
Dean Capobianco was the first athlete to win the race off scratch. Joshua Ross is the only man to have won the Gift twice off the scratch mark. Capobianco and Ross are the only national 100m champions to have won the Gift.

Winners