IF it’s good enough for Stawell, it’s good enough for Albury-Wodonga.
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Gift organisers are taking steps towards prize money parity, by increasing the winner’s cheque for next weekend’s women’s showpiece at the Albury Sportsground.
The women’s Gift prize pool has increased by $1500 to $4500 in total, $3000 of which will go to the women’s Gift winner.
While still well below the men’s total prize pool of $10,000 - the men’s Gift winner gets $6000 - organisers are hoping parity can be achieved in the coming years.
“In a perfect world we would have done it this year, but we couldn’t pull it off that quickly,” Gift organiser Carrick Gill-Vallance said.
“It’s definitely achievable and hopefully we can get there next year.
“Our growing relationship with the Commercial Club has allowed us to increase the prize money.”
This year, for the first time in Stawell’s 134-year history, female athletes competed for equal prize money.
The women’s and men’s winners received a whopping $40,000.
While Albury is a long way off that, Saturday week’s event has also seen an increase in entries to approximately 470.
That means over 250 athletes will descend on the Sportsground for the event, which will be held in December, rather than February.
Victorian Athletic League chief executive officer.Tom Burbidge, who won the Stawell Gift in 2010, said every year entries had increased.
“This year was always going to be interesting with the change of date,” he said.
“The Victorian Athletic League doesn’t have a big carnival pre-Christmas, New Year period, so we’re happy with the numbers.
“It says a lot about the event.
“There was that element of the unknown, to have such a quality race meeting so early in the season.”
There will be 80 races in total at the meeting, with 48 entered in the women’s Gift.
Among those who will compete in various races at Albury are sprint star Melissa Breen and hurdles star Lauren Wells.
Wells is confident she can build on her semi-final appearance at the world athletics championships in Beijing and achieve a top-eight finish at next year's Olympics in Rio.
Melbourne-based veteran Craig Mair is back to defend his title in the men’s Gift.
Mair ran a time of 12.42 seconds from 14 metres to finish ahead of Albury’s Daniel Steinhauser and 2014 champion Luke Stevens.
The fastest footballer’s race is also back, while there is a new event, the chamber challenge.
“Hopefully it can generate a bit more interest among the Albury businesses,” Burbidge said.
