ARARAT - The Ararat Highland Sports Society has abandoned the 2010 Ararat Gift meeting after a change of meeting dates and lack of funding made it financially not viable.
The Tom McDonald Memorial Gift has been run for more than 40 years by the Ararat Highland Sports Society, traditionally on the second Sunday in February, complementing the Ballarat Gift which is held the previous day.
The Society is bitterly disappointed it was forced into cancelling the Gift, which was proposed to be part of a Goldfields Series, incorporating the Stawell Gift carnival over the Easter weekend from April 3 to 5, a twilight Ararat Gift meeting on Wednesday April 7 and a Ballarat Gift meeting the following weekend.
Ararat Highland Sports Society secretary Phil Rodger believes the Ararat committee has been `sold down the river'.
Mr Rodger said the committee was asked by the Victorian Athletic League to attend a meeting in July last year to discuss the proposal to conduct a Goldfields series involving Stawell, Ararat and Ballarat.
While the Stawell Gift carnival has traditionally marked the end of the `Gift' season, the proposal was put forward to extend the season for a week, holding the Ararat and Ballarat Gifts within the same week, encouraging athletes, and their supporters, to remain in the region for an extra week with the opportunity to compete in two other carnivals.
''We were a bit sceptical as to whether the runners would stay in the area for the full seven days,'' Mr Rodger said.
''The types of runners we get are the fair dinkum battlers who won't win in Stawell or Ballarat but are happy to run in Ararat.''
While initially reluctant, the Ararat committee eventually agreed.
''We were seduced by the proviso that an amount of $20,000 funding would be provided,'' he said, also stating that the committee wasn't given a clear indication where this funding would come from.
''At a follow up meeting we gave the Victorian Athletic League a proviso that they had to provide $20,000 and it had to be in our bank account by December 31 2009,'' Mr Rodger said.
The committee also attended a presentation by Ararat Rural City Council on funding options available.
Mr Rodger said the committee became concerned when they hadn't heard any word of the promised funding from either the VAL or Council by the end of the year.
``At a meeting in January we hadn't heard anything despite numerous calls to the VAL,'' he said.
Mr Rodger said the VAL appointed a third party to oversee the Goldfields Series and the committee did not receive any correspondence from him until January 14, when it was suggested that the committee would need to take any funding proposals for the Goldfields Series to Ararat Rural City Council.
This third party also said via the correspondence that the Stawell Athletic Club was `not inclined' to be part of the Goldfields Series.
The committee then realised that requests to Council for funding for this year's event, at that late stage, would fall outside Council's grants' cycle.
''We would be outside the guidelines for obtaining funding, I can't see us getting $20,000 funding now from council,'' Mr Rodger said.
''If we go ahead and run it now we would be broke in one meeting.
''We are between the devil and a hard place.''
Following an emergency meeting last Tuesday night the committee forwarded a letter to the VAL informing it that the committee had decided unanimously to abandon the 2010 meeting.
''We have built up such a good reputation among athletes,'' Mr Rodger said.
''We are disappointed we have let our contingent of loyal runners down.''
The Society will apply to have its original February meeting date reinstated by the VAL.
When asked to comment on the issue, VAL CEO Mark Howard replied via email that ``You can write a story, but I will guarantee you that the event will go ahead...''.
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