
WARRNAMBOOL Gift organiser Richard Wearmouth has declared this year's entry list one of the best.
Olympians Ellie Beer and Jessica Thornton and five-time Stawell Gift-winning coach Brett Robinson will be at Reid Oval for the Victorian Athletic League meeting on Saturday, December 3.
Beer, who competed for Australia as a teenager at the Tokyo Games as part of the 4x400m relay, and Thornton, who represented her country at the 2016 games in Beijing, are part of Robinson's Queensland-based running stable. They will compete in the 70m, 120m and 300 metre races.
Kiera Reddingius - a former Australian heptathlon champion who transferred to bobsledding and donned the green and gold at the Winter Olympics in Beijing - will also compete in Warrnambool.
Wearmouth encouraged avid athletics fans to watch the meeting.
"We'll never get another gift like it; I don't think there will be another like it in this district," he said.
Olivia Matzer - one of Robinson's runners - has an 11.6-second 100m to her name while 2021 runner-up Clare De Salis, of Canberra, will also compete.
Warrnambool teenagers Layla Watson, who is the reigning champion, and Grace Kelly will have home-town support while Stawell Gift winners Liv Ryan (2017), Alexia Loizou (2019) and defending champion Hayley Orman will be contenders.
Australian junior 400m representative Jack Boulton will be out to defend his men's 120m crown at Reid Oval and will have competition from Nitro Series competitor Luke Stevens as well as Nathan Riali, Liam Moss, Michael Hanna, Jesse Cordoma, Corey Baker and Murray Goodwin.
The veteran races will be world-class with Australian duo Julie Brims and Lavinia Petrie along with Great Britain champion John Thomson entered.
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