The Ararat Gift, hosted annually by the Ararat Highland Sports Society, welcomed athletes from across Victoria to compete in the programmed event.

Henry Gunstone is the current treasurer for the society, a group he has been part of for about 40 years.

Mr Gunstone said that it was disappointing the Gift would not be going ahead this season.

“We are having a year off. We don’t have the funds to run it for this season and we haven’t got a full committee,” he said.

The current committee only has five active members and Mr Gunstone said more people are needed.

“We have lost a lot of people over the years. It’s very hard to get people on committees these days,” he said.

Mr Gunstone said the Ararat Gift ran back-to-back with the Ballarat Carnival for many years, but since the Ballarat Carnival went to two days the Ararat competition has struggled with a regular date in the season fixture.

“We are hoping to host the event again, it will be a long struggle to get there, but we will be back one day,” he said.

As sponsorship is one of the key factors in operating the event, Mr Gunstone said the committee is working very hard behind the scenes to secure sponsorship for when the event can be hosted in the future.

“We had a very good meeting last year. The event brings a lot of visitors to the town and it’s good for the town,” he said.

Mr Gunstone said there was no issue in attracting runners to the event, it was the support to get the event up and running which was the issue.

“We are all getting older and we are trying to get younger people to join the committee and jump in and help out,” he said.

Victorian Athletic League chief executive Tom Burbidge said it was a shame Ararat wasn’t able to organise an event to be included in the season calendar.

“It’s unfortunate at this stage we aren’t in a position to help the group out more than what we already have,” he said.

Athletes will be able to compete at a proposed event in Victoria on the weekend on which the Ararat Gift was to secure.

“The Victorian Athletic Club really hopes that the Ararat Gift can come back to the calendar in the future and become again, a regular event on our season calendar,” Mr Burbidge said.