The New Year Sprint (formerly known as the Powderhall Gift) is a handicap sprint race for professional and amateur athletes that takes place each year in Edinburgh, Scotland. The sprint race is one of the original events of this type in the world, tracing its history back to 1870 and has been held continuously since 1870.
The race was originally called the Powderhall Sprint after the district of Edinburgh where it first took place.[1] The Powderhall Sprint was one of a circuit of professional handicap sprint races that prospered in the late nineteenth century in the United Kingdom.[2] The handicap system meant the highly rated runners ran longer distance than less rated runners – the handicap being determined by previous results.[3] Those runners that had to run the full distance, the most highly rated, were running from 'scratch'.
Betting surrounded all the professional races and they were often shrouded in allegations of fraud to ensure a winner favourable to the bookmakers.[4]
The Powderhall Sprint has been run uninterrupted, including through two world wars, since 1870, apart from a brief break in 1953 and between 1958 and 1964 when various venues in Scotland hosted the race. In 1999, the race moved to Musselburgh Racecourse.[5]
In 1993, amateur athletes were allowed to compete for the first time without the risk of losing their amateur status.[2]
Harry Hutchens: Backmarker 11 times between 1880 & 1895
Harry Hutchens was the "scratchmarker eleven times between 1880 and 1895[7] and recorded a world record for 300 yards in 1884 at Powderhall off scratch in 30 seconds even time.[8]
British Olympic medal winner Willie Applegarth was off scratch in 1915.
Willie McFarlane won the race two years in succession in 1933 and 1934, the latter from scratch- a record that still stands.[9]
American gold medal Olympian, Barney Ewell was a competitor at Powderhall in 1950.[10]
Geoffrey Harrington, who came from Brownhills and was off 7.5 yards, broke a 50-year-old record with a time of 11.85 seconds in the 1951 semi final, just pipping Australian runner, Eric Cumming, by an inch who was off two yards.
In the gift's centenary year of 1970, the winner was George McNeill who later won the world professional 120 yards record in 1972.[11]
In 1983 American runner "Kipper" Bell won the 110 metre handicap event, then in 1987, the former United States collegiate 200m champion William Snoddy won.[12]
Australian runners
During the First World War, it attracted the Australian sprinters Arthur Postle and Jack Donaldson (off scratch in 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916)[13] and another Australian runner Cyril J Mears finished third in 1915 and was the scratchmarker in 1918 and 1919. Mears was also the backmarker in the 880 yards handicap in 1919.
Donaldson won the 300 yards Handicap event at Powderhall, off scratch in 1915.[14]
Middle distance runner, Charlie Burgmeier was the scratchmarker in the 1916 one mile handicap and the 880 yards event in 1918.
Some other Australian runners who competed in the Powderhall Gift in the 1930's were Malcom J Dunn[15] and South Australian runner, Jim Hennessey ran in the 1939 Powderhall Gift, [16] while Gordon Andrews ran at Powderhall in 1953.
In 1951, Australian runner Frank Banner prepared for the Powderhall Gift for eight weeks at Gorebridge, prior to the event.[17] Banner was off one and a half yards and fellow Australian runner, Eric Cumming was off two yards, with Cumming just beaten by an inch in the semi final by eventual 1951 winner, Geoff Harrington (off 7.5 yards).[18] In 1952, the Australian sprinter Eric Cumming won the 130 yard handicap final.
↑http://www.shga.co.uk/news.php?a=341 "The Powderhall Sprint [a unique event]", Shane Fenton, Scottish Highland Games Association, 29 December 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
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