Scratch handicaps in the Stawell Gift carnival.
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Get rid of them and start everyone off scratch – powering off the same mark, running the event’s full distance.
But then you missed a crucial part in handicap racing. You miss the hunt.
Ballarat teenager Talia Martin’s Stawell Women’s Gift win has been overshadowed by those questioning the sport’s integrity and relevance. Martin was fined $2000 under an ‘extreme improvement’ rule for a slow run made 12 days out from Australia’s richest footraces, yet after Stawell handicaps had been declared.
Press Box understands Martin was fined on the Saturday of the carnival, after heats and well clear of the semi-finals and title race on Easter Monday.
Water-cooler talk should be questioning the need for rule clarification or changes to improve the sport and make it fairer. Perhaps the flexibility to alter handicaps during a carnival.
Handicap competition, in any sport, will always be flawed to an extent. For all the mathematical calculations and theories, the field will never truly be fair while some athletes get a greater head start than their rivals.
The essence of handicap racing is continued racing, consistent racing and the fire to beat oneself. Handicaps are based on previous results.
It should be almost a lottery to pick a winner because mathematically a backmarker off the true start line should finish in the gates the same as a rival dished the limit (maximum) handicap out front. This is why the sport is so popular with bookmakers and fans keen to take a punt.
There are standards in deviations from the norm to prevent those trying to beat the handicap game – and there are stewards to patrol this. But that gets athletic purists ruffled because there is a degree of subjectivity.
Ideally, promoters and fans want to see the best runners in Gift finals. Stawell traditionally attracts big names like Australia’s fastest woman Melissa Breen or former world’s fastest man in Jamaican Asafa Powell.
Running headline acts off the same start as Gift regulars kills the lottery effect.
The best part of watching a professional running race is watching top, quality athletes mowing down their opponents. There is great satisfaction as a runner passing rivals, checking them off one-by one on your way to the finish line. This is perhaps magnified in sprinting, a discipline of explosive power.
In contrast, professional runners who start out on a mark often speak of a rival thundering behind them, invoking a flight response akin to fleeing a predator.
Amateur running, like in the Olympics, all of the same mark is about being the best.
Professional running is a whole other mental game.
Athletes of varying abilities and age each stand an equal chance. A young gun like Talia Martin can line up in a race with an athlete of Breen’s calibre. Mentally, she has to fend off the chase.
An elite athlete like Breen returns to Stawell for the hunt. Breen is highly determined, fiercely competitive and can turn to Gift running to perfect her hunt.
Marks add an unknown thrill element that must stay, even if slightly flawed. Rules can always be tightened.