I know it does appear weird to those unaccustomed to this type of racing.
It really started in little country towns 150+ years ago. Pub talk "our boy can beat your boy". Then imagine the scenes - the bookmakers got into it "he couldn't win it if (so and so) had 2 metres start'....... then everyone got into the act "I'll lay some money down for a piece of that action".
Think of it as horse racing with the metres start being like getting a lower weight in the saddle.
To think of it just as we normally do a track race is to miss the point. It's really quite exciting because there are no foregone conclusions until the race is run.
And it entails a huge number of distances across the board. Interestingly, As a 49/50 year old I was approached by a well known trainer/coach who reckoned he could get me a decent handicap to run in the Apostles Gift over 70m and possibly win himself a bit of cash.
My first time visiting there was in 2015 watching a 16/17 year old upstart called Jack Hale mowing down seasoned pro runners as he tore up the track. He made people there gasp - most people who go to Stawell for the weekend aren't avid track fans so when they see the real speed of track guys it baffles them.
That still gets me as well now because most of what I see isn't live anymore but on a TV screen.
A few seasons ago I was in the front 2 rows in Sydney watching our 4 x 100m team with Browning flying past me on the home straight so quickly - and I noticed how light and quick were his footsteps covering the ground.
We can all forget just how fast running 10 seconds actually looks when you are there beside them.
The fun part about the result is that Gout is still at school while Evans, the winner, is himself a high school teacher.
While not in the class of Lachie Kennedy or Gout Gout, John Evans 11.94 for 120m (ie 110.5m after his handicap is applied) on a slightly uphill wet track is a great performance - it would certainly give him CRED with his pupils LOL
