Dual winner, Joshua Ross is a big chance to contest the 2013 Australia Post Stawell Gift. Picture: KERRI KINGSTON
STAWELL - Dual Stawell Gift winner Joshua Ross is a strong chance to return to the Australia Post Stawell Gift carnival in 2013.
Ross wowed the crowd when he stormed to victory in the prestigious event in 2003 and 2005.
He is just one of two men and the only Australian to win the nation's richest footrace off scratch.
Ross' name is etched in history as just the third male to become a dual winner of the event.
Stawell Gift promoter David Culbert is confident Ross will return to contest the event.
"He loves it there. The only reason he hasn't been (in Stawell) is that his form hasn't been very good," Mr Culbert said.
However, Ross' form has improved with the 31 year old recently making history by becoming the first sprinter to win Adelaide's Bay Sheffield from the scratch handicap.
Ross told media following his record-breaking race he knew something special would happen.
"I had the same feeling I had when I won the Stawell Gift off scratch (2005)," he said.
"There was some force or feeling I had - it was going to be my day."
However, Ross could be forced to miss Stawell should he decide to focus on the National Championships which are a fortnight after the Stawell Gift.
"Easter is right in the middle of the Australian amateur athletics season and having the Melbourne Track Classic a week after Stawell could impact on his decision," Mr Culbert said.
"He has a spot in the Gift Winners Gift (2013 Stawell Gold Mine Gift Winners Gift, one of the feature races) after winning the Bay Sheffield and we'd be happy to see him."
No man has ever won the Australia Post Stawell Gift three times and Mr Culbert said Ross 'could be the first.'
"Josh runs well on grass. There would be a lot of nervous athletes if he's running as well as he is.
"It's only early in the season though and there is a lot improvement still to come."
The five time National Championship winner featured in the 2012 Olympic Games at London, representing Australia in the men's 4x100 metre relay team that equalled the national record to qualify for the finals and eventually finished seventh.
Mr Culbert said Ross will 'have a point to prove' after missing out on 100 metre individual sprint selection.
"He left a set of spikes here after winning in '05 and I think he'd like to leave another," he said.
"Obviously he would need to run faster to win at Stawell (than at Adelaide).
"He can't get handicapped backwards but the rest of the field can be lifted forward."
Stawell Gift organisers are close to finalising a field that will indicate handicaps, but it will depend on which big names accept an invitation to attend the carnival this year.
There is a wait on an announcement on one international name while Mr Culbert said it was unlikely Jamaican world recorder holder, Michael Frater, would return to Stawell in 2013.
Frater has had to delay the start of his athletics season due to knee surgery.