A 14-year-old running wonder will be among the favourites for the Ballarat Gift, headlining a women's field that has seen a massive increase in numbers.
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Grace Kelly from Warrnambool, who also runs from the Ballarat Harriers, will be among the favourites for Monday's Ballarat Women's Gift, having been handed what looks a generous handicap of four metres.
Kelly is coming off a recent win in the Athletic Victoria Track and Field Championships in February, where she stormed away to win the under 16s, 100m by .62 of a second with a time of 12 seconds flat.
In the heat of that weekend, Kelly broke the 12 second barrier, one of only two runners throughout the whole weekend to do so.
Organisers say this year's women's field has attracted huge numbers with a 27 per cent jump in entries.
However, there will be some cancellations after it was confirmed on Friday that former Australian 100m record holder, and Ballarat champion Gerrard Keating will not be able to showcase his stable of young talent, which is headlined by sprint sensation Torrie Lewis, who was listed as starting from just .5 of a metre.
Lewis instead will now concentrate on the Queensland State Championships which will be held from March 11-14. Lewis has hopes of running the fastest 100m in history in that state when she takes to the track for that event.
Ballarat Gift secretary John Jones said despite the change in date, brought on by Victoria's snap lockdown on February 12-17, the committee was thrilled with the response.
The Ballarat Gift meeting was originally scheduled for the weekend of February 13 and 14 before being called off at the last minute as Victoria reverted to COVID-19 restrictions.
"Gerrard was keen and Torrie was particularly keen to race, but Gerrard has decided it just wasn't quite worth the risk given it's so close to the state titles," Jones said.
"But what we have seen is an incredible uptake of entries in the women's, we have some incredibly strong fields.
"Grace looks to be a very good chance, she's only .25 of a second slower than what Torrie has been running and off four metres, she will be very hard to beat in what looks an open field."
Last year's winner Ebony Lane is another who has pulled out of the event due to the change of date.
With the withdrawals, the new backmarkers will be Kiara Reddingius from Avondale Heights off 2.5 metres and Wonga Park's Jessica Payne off 3 metres.
Heats start at 4.10pm on Sunday with Monday's feature final at 3.35pm.
WOMEN'S GIFT HEATS
HEAT 1 - 4.10pm RED Holly Dobbyn (Ballarat North) 3.5m WHITE Zoe Neale (Heathmont) 5.5 BLUE Katie Moore (Kilsyth) 9.5 YELLOW Hannah Lindstrom (Cheltenham) 10.5 GREEN Hannah Duynhoven (Warrnambool) 12.25 PINK Ali Bilney (Mount Clear) 13.25 BLACK Olivia Skerry (Heathmont) 16.5 GREY Megan Mcmahon (North Sunshine) 17.5
HEAT 2 - 4.13pm RED Amie Mittiga (St Marys) 4 WHITE Grace O'Dwyer (Ballarat) 5.25 BLUE Ellie Keratianos (Sunbury) 6 YELLOW Cara Boustead (Keilor East) 9.75 GREEN Eleni Gilden (Southbank) 10.5 PINK Loryn Savoia (Springhill) 13 BLACK Jessica Burns (Ararat) 14.5 GREY Alex Tzilantonis (Ferntree Gully) 16.75
HEAT 3 - 4.16pm RED Torrie Lewis (Graceville) 0.5 WHITE Summah Harrison (Corlette) 4 BLUE Elizabeth Rauch (North Melbourne) 5.5 YELLOW Cassandra Wang lecouteur (Glen waverley) 7 GREEN Karlee Bailey (Beaconsfield) 8.75 PINK Rachel O'Brien (Warrandyte South) 11.25 BLACK Elizabeth Melrose (Moores Pocket) 13GREY Holly Nichols (Ballarat) 17.5
HEAT 4 - 4.19pm RED Grace Hewitt (Nelson Bay) 2.25 WHITE Grace Kelly (Warrnambool) 4 BLUE Sounya Visvanathan (Dandenong) 5.5 YELLOW Emily Carty (Parkdale) 7.75 GREEN Hayley Openshaw (Warradale) 9.75 PINK Zoe Glassborow (Wonga Park) 9.75 BLACK Chloe Kinnersly (Lucas) 13.25 GREY Caitlyn Nicholson (Moyston) 18
HEAT 5 - 4.22pm RED Kiara Reddingius (Avondale Heights) 2.5 WHITE Olivia Russo (Brighton) 4.75 BLUE Julia Phillips (St Kilda) 5.5 YELLOW Layla Watson (Grassmere) 8.5 GREEN Kirsty Stevens (Tarneit) 9.75 PINK Nicole Jovanovic (Sunbury) 11 BLACK Amelia Cross (Redan) 14 GREY Angela Phillips (Malvern East) 14.5
HEAT 6 - 4.25pm RED Jessica Payne (Wonga Park) 3 WHITE Keira McGregor (Hawks Nest) 4.5 BLUE Hayley Orman (Coromandel Valley) 8.25 YELLOW Halle Martin (Ballarat) 10 GREEN Tiana Shillito (Buninyong) 11.75 PINK Olivia May (Moorabbin) 13.25 BLACK Tarryn Fisher (Sunbury) 15 GREY Ana Helena Pereira (Croydon) 10
HEAT 7 - 4.28pm RED Tara Domaschenz (Ballarat) 3.25 WHITE Taylah Perry (Bayswater) 6 BLUE Grace Carter (Warrnambool) 9 YELLOW Amber Van eede (Cheltenham) 10 GREEN Rosamond Gilden (Adelaide) 11.5 PINK Laura Mcdougall (Maroona) 13.75 BLACK Narelle Lehmann (Torquay) 15.25
