The 19-year-old civil engineering student from Melbourne was well-placed to win the gift off 8.25m with times of 12.02 in his heat and 11.91 in his semi-final with a 1.62 second wind assistance.

Despite fatigue in the warm, windy conditions at the Northern Oval on Saturday, he ran 12.09 in the final, saluting the crowd with two fingers to demonstrate two final wins.

Second-placed Rick Anderssen, formerly of Maroochydore and now of Melbourne, was on the outmark of 12m and third was the diminutive David Vicino off 8.75m.

Ballarat's Matthew Stewart sizzled in his heat and semi but ran a disappointing eighth in the final in 12.38.

Oyanedel was the form runner of the day, setting himself for the Ballarat Gift in only his third season of pro-running after giving up playing soccer.

The unassuming Oyanedel avoided a possible tighter handicap for Ballarat by running the under-21 120m event at Rye recently rather than the gift there which is a handicap penalty event.

"I got a good start and once I got past Rick (Anderssen, frontmarker) I saw home," an unemotional Oyanedel said.

"I tried to peak for this race obviously and coach Paul White put in a lot of time and effort with me.

"I am excited but I just don't show it much. I was very tired but as soon as I got on the block my heart started pumping and I tried to explode from the start and it worked," Oyanedel said.

Four Ballarat runners made the semis of the gift but only Stewart got through to the final.

Earlier in the day, it look like Ballarat runners were going to pre-dominate the gift final with Evan King winning his heat in 12.36 and pleased with his run; Zoy Frangos believing he had finally got his technique right running 12.31 and newcomer to the

top echelon of sprint ranks Justin Templar in 12.37.

Templar was pleased he got his start right after admitting to messing it up at Maryborough.

Stewart looked to be the best chance of the Ballarat sprinters with a heat time of 12.17 and 12.23 in his semi, winning a tough heat against fellow finalist Andrew McManus but felt he panicked in the final.

"I ran terrible. I was all right from the start but then panicked on the way down but I really didn't expect to make the final," a disappointed Stewart said.

* In the 70m Handicap, Oyanedel, off the back mark of 4m, powered away from Michael Percy (6m) and Vicino (5.25) in 7.37 seconds.

His showmanship one-finger victory salute when he crossed the finish line was a sign of better things to come as he had to back up in the final of the Gift only an hour after his 70m win.

The former Fawkner Blues soccer player said he came to Australia from Chile as a four-year-old with his parents Miriam and Juan and said he was thoroughly enjoying his move across from football to pro-running.

"It is the adrenalin, the mateship and the atmosphere is fantastic - all the runners are great people," Oyanedel said.

He said he decided to copycat 2001 Ballarat Gift winner John Cara's victory salute with the raised finger but was worried tiredness would be his downfall in the Gift final.

* Jarrod Meagher won the new Consolation Gift for the six next-fastest place-getters in the semi-finals.

Designed to give those who were egded out of the finals another chance at prizemoney, the race was closer than the main race.

Meagher, a North Ringwood-based sprinter, said it was good to get another chance, and he came away with more money than the seventh and ninth placed runners.

"It's a good race to have," he said. "It's often a quite a bit closer."