Exclusive Club To Hold Inaugural Meeting At Gold Coast Airport Marathon
FIVE Australian distance running legends – all members of an exclusive club - will gather for the first time at next month’s Gold Coast Airport Marathon (Sunday 2nd July).

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Posted Wednesday, 31 May, 2006

Robert de Castella, Lee Troop, Pat Carroll, Derek Clayton and Steve Moneghetti are the only five Australians to have ever run below two hours and ten minutes over the 42 kilometre marathon distance.

And for three of the five, the trip to the Gold Coast will be no holiday.

Troop recently announced his intention to compete in the marathon and pursue the course record after an enforced two year layoff through injury, while Moneghetti and Carroll will also pound the pavements in the 42.195km feature event.

Queensland Events Gold Coast General Manager, Cameron Hart, said having the five together over the Gold Coast Airport Marathon weekend would be a ‘standout highlight of the 2006 event’.

“These are arguably the greatest male marathoners this country has produced – Deek and Derek were both world record holders and to have them all here in the one place at the same time is just fantastic,” Mr Hart said.

“They all hold the Gold Coast Airport Marathon – the 2006 Telstra Australian Marathon Championship – in extremely high regard and are five of the greatest ambassadors we could hope for.

“We’re little more than a month out from the starter’s gun and the entry numbers we are seeing at this point suggest we’ll see a massive turnout on the day across all the events.

“We may even exceed last year’s record of 12,711 competitors,” Mr Hart said.

Aside from the feature race, associated events include the Asics Half Marathon, Telstra Country Wide 10 Kilometre Run, Gold Coast Bulletin 7.5 Kilometre Walk and the Norco Pauls Junior Dashes.

Online entries and entry forms are now available.

For more information call Queensland Events Gold Coast on 07 5564 8733 or race to www.goldcoastmarathon.com.au.

The sub 2:10 runners…

ROBERT DE CASTELLA (2:07:51)

Robert de Castella, born February 27th 1957, is a world champion marathon runner. His strong performances in 1981-83 made him the favourite for the marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics, at a time when Australia had few prospects for Olympic gold. He dominated the world marathon scene throughout the 80’s and was voted the world’s best marathon runner for that decade. Although he never won an Olympic medal, he finished in the top ten on three of his four attempts. An Australian cross-country champion at 22, Rob took up marathon running in 1979 and made his Olympic debut one year later at Moscow at age 23, finishing tenth. Two years later, he claimed his first victory and the world record, at the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan. In 1982, Rob won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and was voted Australian of the Year and honoured with an MBE. Rob went into the 1984 LA Olympics as the favourite, but only achieved fifth place due to tough conditions. He retained his Commonwealth Games title in Edinburgh and won the Boston Marathon in record time. Rob retired after the 1993 London Marathon. In 1998 Rob launched SmartStart, a company combating obesity and inactivity in children.

PAT CARROLL (2:09:39)

Pat Carroll is one of Australia's most talented distance runners ever, representing Australia 18 times at various distances. Pat ran his first marathon at the Gold Coast in 1982, in 2 hours and 48 minutes. Pat has since won this prestigious event four times’ in 1983, 1984, 1988 and 1997. He has finished in the top eight at three Commonwealth Games and has twice been the Australian Champion for the Marathon in 1988 and 1997. He was the runner up in Sydney’s City to Surf on two occasions. He is ranked 4th on the Australian all-time list for the Marathon behind Rob de Castella, Steve Moneghetti and Derek Clayton. Now in his early 40s, Pat has retired from major competition, but runs regularly and remains involved in the sport through his involvement with the Gold Coast Airport Marathon and online coaching business.

DEREK CLAYTON (2.08:33)

Derek Clayton was an Australian athlete, born in Lancashire, England and raised in Northern Ireland. He was completely self-trained and averaged 140 to 170 miles a week, sometimes running over 200 miles a week. Derek is the only man in the last four decades to break his own marathon world record. Bettering his previous best by more than 8 minutes, he finished in 2:09:36 at Fukuoka for the world record in 1967; he then went on to run 2:08:33 in Antwerp, Belgium, in '69. The latter record endured for more than 12 years. His personal best time of 2:08:33.6 is still a world class marathon time. Clayton will mostly be remembered for his sensational, barrier-breaking world records throughout the 60's.

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