Time on Ballarat Gift's side in difficult times
IDEAL VENUE: The tree-line City Oval has plenty of open spaces for COVID-19 social distancing.
Ballarat Athletic Club remains hopeful its two-day carnival will go ahead as scheduled in February.
Club president Evan King said time was on its side with still five months to go before the Ballarat Gift.
He said the club was prepared to wait until the end of the year before making a final decision in a COVID-19 compromised Victorian Athletic League season.
King said with the club financially strong and the City Oval a spacious venue and ideal tor meeting possible state government-enforced protocols such as social distancing, the Gift meet was well placed to proceed.
He said while there was still much to work through, the club was ready to give the green light if the opportunity was there.
The BAC has no doubt the status of COVID-19 will be the determining factor.
King said one of the biggest challenges facing events of this kind was sponsorship.
He said the economic circumstances made it difficult to go asking for financial support from the business community with so many people doing it tough.
King said sound financial management - and hopefully ongoing financial support from the City of Ballarat -meant the club would be able to maintain prizemoney levels without any contributions from sponsors.
He said it would be possible to keep sponsors on board without them having to dip into their pockets.
He agreed it would a show a good faith to those who had been supporting the club in better times.
This year's Ballarat Gift and Women's Gift each offered $7000 in prizemoney, plus $1500 in speed incentives which was shared among the fastest runners in the heats.
The bonus, which is calculated on metres per second, was worth $500 when introduced in 2019.
- Daylesford Gift talks later this month, page 22