“Let the debates begin”, writes Bryan Green, an invitation most of us can’t resist.

So I might kick things along by saying I have no idea who would win a fantasy 800 between the past three world record holders – Sebastian Coe, Wilson Kipketer and David Rudisha.

That said, I have a strong view on who would not win, and that’s Sebastian Coe. I’d back him against pretty well anyone in history at 1500 but the case against Coe at 800 can be summarised _ a little unfairly, I’ll admit _ in three words: Hans-Peter Ferner.

Hans-Peter Ferner was the largely undistinguished German middle-distance runner who upset Coe in the 800 at the 1982 European championships in Athens. The comparison is not entirely fair to Coe, as he had missed a lot of the 1982 season ill.

“I’ve taken a lot out of a shallow well,” he said in attempting to explain the inexplicable.

The loss to Ferner, however, did serve to underline the fact that for all his greatness at 800, Coe struggled to win a major title at the event. In the 1978 European championships, he was third, passed by Steve Ovett in the final metres before both were swamped by East Germany’s Olaf Beyer. At the Moscow Olympic Games, the two great British rivals famously ‘swapped’ specialties, Ovett winning the 800, Coe redeeming his career with his win in the 1500.

After two years of illness and injury, Coe was again at peak strength for the 1984 Olympics. He successfully defended his 1500 crown, but only after finishing second in the 800 to Brazil’s Joaquim Cruz.

Indeed, not until the 1986 Europeans _ by which time he had been the world record holder for seven years _ did Coe finally land an 800 gold medal. He beat Tom McKean and Steve Cram in a British clean-sweep. Then, in an outcome eerily reminiscent of Moscow 1980, he lost the 1500 to Cram.

Cram had earlier won the Commonwealth 800-1500 double, taking the 800 in 1:43.22 from McKean. Coe, who was ill, did not take his place in the final.

So, over eight years from 1978 to 1986, Coe lost two fast championship 800s (1978, when he went out in 49.3, and 1984, when Cruz won in 1:43.00), two tactical races (1980 and 1982) and didn’t get to the line for a race Cram won in 1:43.22.

Coe was obviously a great 800 runner, but the evidence suggests he was vulnerable in head-to-head races against the very few men who could be regarded as his peers.

Kipketer won four world championships but likewise failed to win an Olympic gold medal. He missed his best chance in 1996 when he was ineligible, a few months short of becoming a naturalised citizen for his adopted Denmark. It’s hard to see how Kipketer would not have won then.

Rudisha, of course, has no medal at all at senior global championship level, his one attempt ending in the semi-finals in Berlin last year. That bitter experience sparked the sequence of fast times which included the world record 1:41.09 in the same Berlin stadium a week ago.

Rudisha’s current status raises another point of debate in 800 running: all things being equal, will a good big man always beat a good little man?

Peter Fortune, Cathy Freeman’s coach, observed of Rudisha that “he’s not only big; he runs magnificently and he’s quick.” Of course, as well as one of Rudisha’s  1:43 performances in Melbourne, Australians also saw evidence of his speed when he ran a 45.50 400 in Sydney earlier this year.

On whether good big men always beat good little men, Fortune was not so sure, but he says: “When they’re tired, big men remain strong.”

Most 800-metre races are run slowing down. I saw some ‘stats’ this week that indicated 18 of the 21 improvements of the world record/world best (a couple were not ratified) featured a slower second lap. Most of this slowdown comes in the last 200. In both Kipketer’s previous record of 1:41.11 and Rudisha’s 1:41.09, the slowest 200 was the last 200.

Intuitively, physical strength must play a role here. Intuitively again, big men are stronger than smaller men and stocky men stronger than lean rivals.

This issue got a really good working over back in the days when Alberto Juantorena ruled the roost. Juantorena (nick-name El Caballo, the horse) won the 400/800 double at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and remains the only man to do so. He set world records both in winning at the Games (1:43.50) and the following year (1:43.44).

In Montreal, Juantorena destroyed his smaller US opponent Rick Wohlhuter, who had set two world records in the run-up to the Games, in the final straight.

Mike Boit of Kenya missed that race as the African nations boycotted Montreal in protest at New Zealand’s rugby ties with South Africa. Tall, but lean, Boit took Juantorena on in a classic race at the World Cup in Dusseldorf in 1977. The pair engaged in a side-by-side battle up the last straight before Boit fell into his opponent’s giant stride pattern and lost narrowly, 1:44.04 to 1:44.14.

Coe’s championship losses to Beyer-Ovett and Cruz also fall into the big man/small man category.

Anyway if you want to make your own judgement, you can see the 1976 Olympic final here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBTG-QwbNsE&feature=related) and the 1977 World Cup race here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9C2CDZvOOY).

Finally, as Rudisha contemplates his championships aims for the next two years, it’s sobering to think that the last man to win an Olympic gold while also holding the world record was Dave Wottle back in 1972 in Munich.

Let the debates continue!

By Bryan Green

We've seen a lot of records fall this season, and a number of other fast times.  David Rudisha just took down Wilson Kipketer's 800m world record, Ryan Gregson surpassed Simon Doyle's old 1500m Australian record, and Chris Solinsky and Bernard Lagat set new American Records in the 10000m and 5000m, respectively.  And we've seen Wheating and Manzano put up surprising personal bests in the 1500m and 800m, respectively.



Where records fall, debates rise up to take their place.  Is Rudisha's 2010 season better than Kipketer's 1997 campaign?  How does Gregson compare to Doyle?  Who had the better season, Solinsky or Lagat?  Who is the best middle distance runner in the US, Wheating or Manzano?  The great thing about all of these questions is that there's no easy answer.  Depending on the athlete, some arguments are stronger and others weaker.  And some are just plain dumb.

By my count, there are 12 arguments people make when debating runners' seasons and/or careers.  A good message board thread will usually have all of these come up at some point:

The Hardware Argument:  How many championships did they win?  The basis of this argument is that there is only one thing that matters, and that's winning.  In track, this argument is usually diluted to include the top three, but only when it can't be settled by gold medals.  

In perhaps the greatest debate settling race I can remember, Hicham El Guerrouj outkicks Kenenisa Bekele for gold medal #2 in Athens, earning major Hardware and Scoreboard points in the debate for "greatest distance runner of their era".

 
The Record Books Argument:  Where do they rank all-time?  This argument assumes the best put up the best marks.  Faster, farther and higher = superior.  For young runners, this argument is often modified to be relative to age.  This is the one argument that tends to hold some weight against the Hardware Argument.  Especially when somebody is still the reigning record holder.

The Scoreboard Argument:  How did they fare head-to-head with other athletes?  It don't mean a thing unless it came at the other guy's expense.  This is similar to the Hardware Argument, except that it pertains to all races, not just championships.  Unfortunately, this argument can only be used between two athletes in the same era.

The Dominance Argument:  How much better were they than their competition?  This is related to the Scoreboard Argument, only it measures the quality of the victories.  Winning big is superior to just winning.  The scale ranges from Haile G outkicking Tergat "barely dominant" to Usain Bolt celebrating his 100m victory and winning by two strides "completely dominant".  And yes, this argument can be applied to careers by looking at winning streaks.

The "You had to be there" Argument:  How can you appreciate something that can't be captured in statistics?  You see this more in other sports than in running, but it often comes up when you debate with old people about "who would have won head-to-head" between athletes from two different eras.  If your family was anything like mine, your dad probably used this to end the discussion when you tried to tell him how great your favorite player is.

The Historian Argument:  How good was the person given the historical context of the period in which he ran?  This argument can be spun in many ways.  It can be used to include Paavo Nurmi and Emil Zatopek in the same discussion with Haile G and Kenenisa Bekele.  It's also used to argue that champions from "fast" eras were better than those from "slow" eras.  Some people even extrapolate this to argue that if runners from previous eras were given our present-day knowledge and training methods they would (or would not) be just as fast.  The Historian Argument can get quite creative.

The Socio-economic Argument:  How many advantages or disadvantages did the person face?  This is an argument that gets abused way too much.  Many people want to give bonus points to athletes who ran themselves out of poverty or deduct credit for those who had "excessive" resources at their disposal (i.e. Alter-G treadmills).  Maybe...maybe...it can be used as a tie-breaker when two athletes seem relatively equal, but it's usually just someone confusing the issue in an effort to be PC.  

Even at 35, Lagat is still the best in the world when he's on.

The Longevity Argument:  How long was the person good?  There is something to be said for success over a long period of time.  It's amazing when someone can retain their abilities despite advancing in age.  With that said, this argument never usually comes out until a younger runner achieves something the older runner never did.

The Consistency Argument:  How predictable was the athlete's performance?  Some athletes range from very bad to brilliant, whereas others seem to always be very good.  People making this argument often approach the debate from a "who would I pick on my team if I were the team captain?" approach.  There's value to knowing what you're going to get.

The Peak Argument:  How good were they when they were at their best?  This is the obvious counter-argument to the Longevity Argument.  Who cares how long someone kept competing, tell me how good they were for their best 3 or 5 years.  This argument assumes that motivation to keep going isn't relevant to a discussion of greatness.

The "If Only..." Argument (aka The Prefontaine Argument):  What would have happened if only {whatever happened} hadn't actually happened?  This argument always gets used when discussing careers cut short due to death, illness, injury, or even early retirement, as in the case of Herb Elliott (surely he would have kept winning had he kept running, no?).  A lot of people like to give athletes bonus points for what they wanted them to achieve.

The Trendsetter Argument (aka The Fosbury Argument):  How much did the person do for their sport/event?  This argument gives a high amount of credit to anyone who changed the way the sport/event was played.  It could be explicit, like being the first to flop a certain way or implicit, like racing with a certain style or approach.  This argument is particularly common when debating coaches.

And a couple you see way too much from anonymous trolls on message boards:

Troll #1: The "What have you done for me lately?" Argument:  How fast did the person run their last race?  You hear this occasionally when a person gets injured or runs a bad race and some hoser declares that they suck.  I've honestly never heard this argument made in a real life conversation before, but it's the first weapon in a message board troll's arsenal.

Troll #2: The "Must Be Drugs" Argument:  How likely is it that the person's marks are the result of PEDs or other extenuating circumstances?  This is the cynic's anti-argument.  It allows the debator to avoid acknowledging the arguments of the other side, by casting suspicion on them entirely.  BALCO made this argument much more common (and more plausible, sadly), but it's been around for ages (Lasse Viren comes to mind).

Let the Debates Begin

It's possible I missed a few, and if so I hope you'll tell me in the comments.  And since I'm talking about debates, I thought I'd make some observations about some of the accomplishments I noted at the top.  Note: I don't feel qualified to debate Gregson vs Doyle, however, so I'm going to leave that for someone with a little more expertise on the subject, perhaps you, in the comments.

Rudisha vs Kipketer:  Two years ago, Kaki looked poised to dominate the 800m for the foreseeable future.  Today, he's the clear #2 behind David Rudisha.  That debate seems settled.  It also seems premature to compare Rudisha's career with Kipketer's, as the latter competed for many years and Rudisha is just getting started.  Will he match Kipketer's three World Championship golds or win the elusive Olympic gold that neither Coe nor Kipketer could attain?

What we can debate, however, is whether Rudisha's 2010 is superior to Kipketer's 1997. In 1997, Kipketer tied Seb Coe's world record in July, and then broke it twice in August.  All three times continue to rank 2nd, 3rd, and T-5th all-time.  Oh yeah, he also won both the Indoor and Outdoor World Championship titles.  That's some major Hardware.

Rudisha has had an amazing year, and it's not necessarily over.  Even if he doesn't compete again, though, he's broken the world record and run the 1st, 4th, and 10th fastest times ever.  Even if we take away Kipketer's Hardware on the basis that Rudisha didn't compete in any WC meets, the nod to "greatest 800m season ever" still has to go to Kipketer, albeit barely.  It's too bad Rudisha didn't run World Indoors this year...

Lagat is 6-0 lifetime against Solinsky, and 1-0 this year.  But Solinsky is getting closer and closer.

Solinsky vs Lagat:  These two athletes rewrote the US record books this season by breaking the 10k and 5k records, respectively.  But who had the better season?  

Let's start with Solinsky.  First he blew everyone away by smashing Meb's 10k AR.  He then proceeded to run three of the top five times ever by an American at 5k.  His worst race, a 13:08 at Pre, would have ranked him 6th all-time on the US list.  And yet.

And yet Bernard Lagat has had another Lagatian season.  He won the World Indoors 3000m and the USA 5000m title (a meet Solinsky skipped).  He then set the AR for 5000m both indoor (13:11.50) and outdoor (12:54.12) and ran 3:32 and 7:32 in various European races.  In their one head-to-head race, Lagat beat Solinsky (his AR 5000m performance).

Given the advantage in Hardware, Record Books and Scoreboard arguments, Lagat has had the better season.  But it isn't over, and I believe Solinsky has a chance to make up some ground.  That's because he's been as consistent as any athlete in the world up to this point.  His three European 5000m races have all been between 12:55.5 and 12:56.6.

To me, that's a clear sign that there's more left in the tank.  Someone can run a perfect race once, and maybe even twice.  But there's no way he's run three perfect races this season.  What this means is that 12:56 is more in the range of "very good" for Solinsky, and if he can pop a great race, that time could come down quite a bit.  

Would it be enough to tip the scales in his season's favor?  That's hard to say.  It probably depends on whether Bernard Lagat is still crossing the line while Solinsky is celebrating.

Wheating vs Manzano:  If you had told me earlier this summer that Wheating's 1500m time would be faster than Manzano's, but Manzano would equal Wheating's 800m time, I would have scoffed at you.  Yet that's where we find ourselves now.  Both Manzano and Wheating have run 1:44.56 for 800m, and Wheating's smokin' 3:30.90 is much faster than Manzano's 3:33.51 1500m or 3:50.64 mile.

Wheating is leading the head-to-head matchup 2-1, having run his two best races (Pre and Monaco) when Manzano ran his two biggest stinkers (and they were indeed stinkers).  But Manzano beat Wheating at his own event at the Stockholm 800m. 

And there's still time for Lopez Lomong to reinsert himself in the discussion.  He was the USA Outdoor champ over Manzano--in a race Wheating skipped--and ran 3:32.20 earlier in the season.  He was behind Wheating in both of his best races, however, and hasn't shown much range outside the mile.  I never would have thought it going into the spring but based on his Consistency, his Scoreboard, and his amazing times, Andrew Wheating is now the best middle distance runner in the US.

by Chris Wainwright

Matt Beckenham - Making His Mark on the International Coaching Scene (Part 2)

**Editor: Please note the following interview was conducted on the 1^st August, and was broken down into two parts due to the length of the interview**.

• Mizuno – Lauren Boden and Tom Burbidge
• Asics – Melissa Breen and Brendan Cole
• 2XU – Brendan Cole

By Len Johnson

It was hard not to feel the warmth at Bondi Beach last Sunday.

It was a warm day for the 40^th running of the City2Surf. The sort of day they say is regularly turned on for the world’s biggest road race, and on the rare occasions when it is not, the sort of day they say is usually turned on for it.

It was the sort of atmosphere in which Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott would love to have basked. Even Mark Latham may have mellowed out a little had he been there.

Mostly, it was the weather _ clear, sunny, almost no wind. But there was also the warm glow generated by being among 80,000 like-minded souls.

Pretty well every person at Bondi Beach on Sunday, 8 August was there for the City2Surf. Eighty thousand had run, jogged or walked from the start at Hyde Park, others had come there to meet loved ones or friends. At noon, when I finally left Bondi, there was almost as big a crowd walking up the hill to Bondi Junction and the trains as there had been running up the Rose Bay to Vaucluse Hill in the race a few hours earlier.

As a sports journalist for over 20 years, I was often caught up in crowds gathered for a single purpose. I experience it at AFL grand finals, at the opening day of Olympic and Commonwealth Games, or at world championships. The atmosphere was tweaked a little higher still on day one of Brisbane 1982, Sydney 2000 and Melbourne 2006.

There is one difference between such occasions and the City2Surf _ and it is a significant one. At major sporting events, the crowd has come to watch others perform, the event itself is a celebration of the highest performance level of a sport _ Olympics, AFL, NRL, whatever.

At the City2Surf, however, the celebration is of everyman and everywoman. The 80,000 participants range from the fleetest of foot _ who negotiate the 14 kilometres from city to beach before many of the back-of-the-pack folk have even set foot on the road _ to the slowest of the slow.

It is not 80,000 gathered to watch a handful of elites perform, but to share roughly the same experience. It’s as if the entire crowd at the AFL grand final were on the field having a communal kick-to-kick.

Apart from breaking the course records, this year’s race had pretty much everything you could ask for. On paper, there seemed little between defending champion Michael Shelley, 2008 winner Martin Dent, Commonwealth Games marathon selection Jeff Hunt and Delhi 5000 representative Ben St Lawrence.

This expectation was borne out on the roads. The four race through the early part of the course together. Shelley was the aggressor up the big hill, but it was still all together at the top and well around the corner through Dover Heights. Only then did Dent start to drop back a little; only in the last few hundred metres did Hunt drop a few seconds behind.

And only in the last 100 metres was the issue settled between Shelley and St Lawrence. Even then, it swung first St Lawrence’s way and then Shelley’s, before St Lawrence edged decisively ahead to win by a second in 41:05.

Lara Tamsett had a bit more to spare in winning the women’s race. Her 46:54 was the 10^th-fastest women’s performance in race history. St Lawrence’s was a victory and Tamsett’s a performance to burnish the warm glow surrounding the morning. 

by Chris Wainwright

In 2000 Matt Beckenham was representing Australia at the Sydney Olympics in the 400m hurdles. A decade on he will be playing an important role as coach to the likes of Melissa Breen, Lauren Boden and Brendan Cole as they step out onto the track at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games.

We caught up the 34 year-old Beckenham just prior to his trip over to Singapore for the Youth Olympics, where he will be leading some of Australia's top youth track athletes.


Currently I am also looking at running some junior coaching clinics (MattyB’s FIT4FUN) within the ACT. I presented the concept at a recent ACT Little Athletics AGM and the feedback was quite positive. I have put 7 of my senior athletes through a coaching course so that they can run the sessions and earn some money to help them cover some of their expenses. I will act in a mentor role and try and offer local little athletics clubs with a mechanism for retention of athletes and also provide a coach development and training service.

{part 2 - coming soon to RT}

I’m one of those who have always preferred the descriptor athletics for my favourite sport to the grander-sounding track and field.

One reason is that the latter term does not even encompass one of two of the more popular forms of competition _ road and cross-country. A more basic one is that athletics is a more holistic sort of word, implying a whole that is more than just the sum of its parts, while, to my taste anyway, track and field suggests two fundamentally different sports under the one umbrella.

It’s all a matter of semantics, but results at the recent continental championships, particularly the African and European championships, indicated that perhaps there is a disturbing element of truth to the two sports/one umbrella concept. Specifically, if you want to see field athletics, go to Europe; if you want to see track, go to Africa, the Caribbean, the US _ but go somewhere else.

In looking at the results from Nairobi (African champs) and Barcelona (European), this distinction virtually leapt off the page. As some have already observed (notably Pat Butcher in his www.globerunner.org blog), the field event results in Spain were right at the top of world-class, but the track results were spotty; in Kenya, the opposite was true.

There was a gender divide _ the women’s track results in Barcelona were generally superior to those in Nairobi _ but there are other social and cultural factors operating here. Women’s middle and long-distance performances were also better at the Europeans, but female African runners have joined their male counterparts in dominating those events at world level.

Pat Butcher also commented on the implications of these outcomes for the sport in Europe. Track events, he argued, are far more marketable than field events, so it cannot be a good thing that Europeans are virtually invisible on the world stage in track events.

Be that as it may, a quick comparison of the men’s events at the African and European championships shows the medal performances _ not only gold, but all medals _ in Nairobi were generally much superior to those at Barcelona.

Amazingly, one event in which they were not was the 3000 metres steeplechase. Good as the French pair who went 1-2 in Barcelona _ Mahiedine Mekhissi and Bob Tahri _ are, fast as they ran (8:07.87 and 8:09.28 and despite the fact that they have both been very competitive in recent global championships, I don’t think anyone would argue they are a threat to the Kenyan hegemony in the event.

Still, one other thing which was apparent in Barcelona was the strong performances by British athletes. No doubt this level of performance is rising as a home Olympic Games draws ever closer. Hopefully, there will be a wash-over effect into other European countries. After all, an Olympics in London in 2012 is also far more a “home” Games for French, German and Scandinavian athletes than was Beijing in 2008.

With the post-championship phase of the Diamond League and European season about to start up as I write, the other major thing to ponder is what the results in Nairobi and Barcelona imply for the remainder of the season. Freed of the mental and physical burden of preparation for the year’s major objective, what performances might some of the champions now produce (not to mention others spurred on by failing to achieve desired results).

In Nairobi, David Rudisha ran 1:42.84, leaving 2007 world champion Alfred Kirwa Yego some two seconds behind (Abubaker Kaki did not run). Now he is free to resume the chase after Wilson Kipketer’s world record.

Silas Kiplagat and Aamine Lalou excited us with the year’s first sub-3:30 1500 metres performance in Monaco recently, but in Nairobi Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop handled them both. What will they produce when the chase for fast times resumes, I wonder.

Sadly, one thing we won’t get to find out is how fast Wilson Kiprop might run at sea level. For the second time he produced an amazing 10,000 metres performance at altitude (Nairobi is around 1700 metres above sea level). In the Kenyan trials it was 27:26.93. In the championships, he was just as impressive, winning in 27:32.91. But there is no Brussels 10k this year, due to the fact that it is the Diamond League final and the distance is 5000.

The women’s distances seemed more affected by the altitude than the men’s, but Olympic champion Nancy Lagat, who has lost just once this year, again defeated Ethiopia’s Gelete Burka in the 1500 and world champion Vivian Cheruiyot produced a 2:46 final kilometre to win the 5000 metres from Meseret Defar in 16:18.72.

From the Europeans, Blanka Vlasic finally got a European title with a 2.03 win in the high jump, Natalya Antyukh ran under 53 seconds to win the 400 metres hurdles, Andreas Thorkildsen continued to rule the men’s javelin, Phillips Idowu showed his best form when it counted to win the triple jump with a personal best 17.81, Christian Reif produced a world-leading and championship record 8.47 to win the long jump and Renaud Lavillenie was untroubled to win the vault at 5.85.

With the big pressure off them, some of these athletes will be out to produce something out-of-the-ordinary in the remainder of the season.

by Chris Wainwright

On the 17th October, 1982 Grenville Wood ran a personal best of 2:12.50 at the Melbourne Marathon, just behind a course record time run by the legendary Bill Rodgers (2:11.08). Over a quarter of a century later Grenville's daughter Demi has yet to reach the lofty heights set by her father, although is starting to make her own mark in Australian distance running.

Last December Demi ran an impressive time of 9:31.26 in less than ideal conditions to win the junior 3000m title at the Zatopek Classic and followed this with an all the way win at the 2010 World Cross Country trials at Brimbank Park, Melbourne.

With the win at the trials, Demi then went onto debut in the green and gold at the World Junior Cross Country Championships in Poland. Although everything didn't exactly go to plan Demi did manage to place 50th and plans to break into the top-20 at the 2011 version of the Championships when they take place in Punta Umbria, Spain.

We were lucky enough to catch up with Demi as she overcomes an achilles injury, discussing her experience gained from running in Poland and whether she one day expects to follow in her father's footsteps and eventually run a marathon.

We started by asking Demi why she missed running the Australian Junior Championships in April...

• Sunday: 1hour 30mins long run
• Monday: am – easy 6km, pm – 12km as I feel, sometimes I reach 3.40km pace
• Tuesday: am – easy 6km, pm – long VO2 max reps with long recoveries
• Wednesday: am – easy 6km, pm – 12-15km easy
• Thursday: am- easy 6km, pm- 1500m pace running maximum of 3km
• Friday: am- easy 6km, pm – easy 8km
• Saturday: tempo run of 8km or 20min fartlek

It’s the 40^th running of the City to Surf this year. I guess that means it’s here to stay.

Around 70,000 entries have been received. Reports of the death of the running boom appear to have been exaggerated.

The race from the centre of Sydney to the most famous surf beach in Australia _ Bondi _ was first staged in 1971. Then it started at the Town Hall; now it starts from Hyde Park. Then, and for the first five editions, it wound its way up through Kings Cross; now it goes through the tunnel.

Then it was won by visiting American runner Kenny Moore from Australia’s John Farrington. Beth Stanford was the first woman to finish out of just under 80 female entrants. That figure represented approximately four percent of the 2000-or-so total entries. Now, female participation rates hover around 50 percent, and women constituted a majority in the 2006 race.

Then the race was run on the first Sunday in September; now it is the second Sunday in August, though organisers graciously brought the race forward in 2000 to allow the Sydney Olympics a little clear air for publicity!

Back then, on seeing a runner, some ‘dags’ could not resist winding down the car window and enquiring: “Who do you think you are _ Ron Clarke?” Now, we’d know enough to retort: “No, but I’m channelling him!”

Now, of course, the City to Surf has a City2Surf tag, leading me to wonder whether this column should not be headed: “The City2Surf @ 40”, but in so many ways the race is the same as when it started. For a few, it’s about getting from the city to Bondi as quickly as possible. For a few more, it’s about running from the city to Bondi in the company of thousands of like-minded souls.

For the rest of the participants, and for all the spectators, the City to Surf is a festival of running. For one day each year, the community from the centre of town, through some of Sydney’s most exclusive suburbs and some of its most inclusive, is pretty much united by one event.

Everyone who has run a City to Surf has a favourite moment. Mine still remains the first, the moment I took a quick glance over my shoulder as I headed up William St into the tunnel to see the whole street filled with runners.

My next favourite moment concerns a race I didn’t even run _ the 1985 edition, when I was (kind of) responsible for getting the winner to Australia. I’d done a little bit of work for the City to Surf and other Fairfax running events, and was asked to suss out the possibility of Olympic marathon champ Carlos Lopes coming out.

I headed off to the 1985 world cross-country championships in Lisbon armed with several folders of promotional material and a few t-shirts (runners, even good ones, came relatively cheap then). I never did speak to Carlos, my nerve and my Portuguese both being pretty much non-existent.

But I did invite English marathoner Hugh Jones over for a cup of tea and a chat while we were training on the Algarve, told him about the race, gave him the t-shirt and the organiser contacts. Fivemonths later, Jones became the first overseas winner since Kenny Moore and my career as a race promoter came to an end with a 100 percent strike rate.

I finished my first City to Surf, the 1978 race, still holding an orange t-shirt. Back then, the elite and semi-elite runners used to line up on the traffic-light island across the intersection from the official start. The practice was condoned by race organisers, but they also disqualified any runner detected not starting from the official line.

So you wore an old t-shirt to cover your race number. I intended to discard mine along the way but, in the excitement, I carried it in my hand all the way to the finish.

That was also the year of the ‘false start’, when all the runners were given an arbitrary two-minute penalty. There certainly was a premature start and the official timing no doubt started late, but I reckon we were ‘dudded’. Six years later, I ran my second City to Surf and recorded pretty much the same time despite not being in anything like the same form.


Over the years, the City to Surf has been run, and won, by some of Australia’s best. John Farrington won three in a row after that first race, Angie Cook went from first schoolgirl in the inaugural race to a two-time winner in 1974 and 1975. Robert de Castella, Chris Wardlaw, Bill Scott and Steve Austin _ Olympians all _ were among the early winners.

‘Deek’ set a race record 40 minutes eight seconds in 1981, which Steve Moneghetti chased for four years before beating it by five seconds in 1991. Allison Roe of New Zealand, Lisa Ondieki and, finally, Susie Power, set outstanding female race records. Ondieki ran so fast that her coach, Dick Telford, wearing a light-weight head-cam for television, had to take a short-cut from New South Head to Old South Head Rd to keep up with her.

‘Mona’ did even better as a wired-up runner in 2004, leading pretty well all the way before losing out in a sprint to Tanzania’s three-time winner Patrick Nyangelo and his teammate Dickson Marwa. Apparently he’d just asked them: “Can’t you run any faster?”

Actually, I made that bit up. But there are 70,000 stories in the City to Surf, and that could have been one of them. The 40^th running this year, the 40^th birthday next year, still going strong.

The City to Surf is Australia’s most famous road race and, often, its best. Long may it run.