Written by Jaryd Clifford - Runner's Tribe
Adam Didyk & Team Tempo: Putting South Australia back on the running map
It was a brilliant stroke of genius during a despondent period that propelled Adam Didyk down the path of coaching. At a dinner table in 2007, uncertainty filled the conversation. He...
As Michael Roeger’s body ground to a halt along the Embankment in London earlier this year, the crowd hushed, their breaths held in unison as they bore witness to the dramatic cruelty of the marathon. Mercilessly, it seemed, the historic distance was only moments away from claiming yet another...
The Leonora Golden Gift kicked off on Thursday in spectacular fashion. Under the guidance of professional running coach Raf Baugh, a record number of local school kids – aged five to eighteen – took part in an athletics clinic preparing them for the weekend’s races. The day proved to...
Written by Jaryd Clifford
The art of placing one foot in front of another offers up an infinite collection of incredible stories. Too many of which will never be told. It is an inadvertent omission, a regrettable consequence of the modern worlds saturation of inspiration. Due to this, some people...
RT EXCLUSIVE: Jordan Gusman
Why Malta?
Written by Jaryd Clifford (c) Runner's Tribe
The rumours are true: Australian 5000m champion Jordan Gusman is no longer eligible to represent Australia. A few days ago, he received notice of his successful transfer to Malta, relinquishing his automatic qualifying spot on the Australian team...
Written by Jaryd Clifford - Runner's Tribe
A grimace flickered across his face. Hopping from one foot to the other, his restlessness foreshadowed the chaotic frenzy that would soon ensue. Clad in Nike’s famous green speckled racing kit, the willowy figure of Stewart McSweyn stood poised on the precipice of...
In 1998, a young runner from New South Wales lay shattered on the Olympic Park track in Melbourne. His name was Martin Dent, and moments earlier he had come to a grinding halt, his panic-stricken face awash with realisation. It was the Australian junior steeplechase final, and while leading the race, he had forgotten to hurdle the all-important water jump. His race was over, and there was nothing he could do. It was his fault, and he knew it. Rising slightly from the track, he began to pummel his fist into the ground, his frustration released in a brief, yet unforgettable tirade. It was this fierce passion that would one day take him to the Olympic Games, and make him one of the toughest runners in Australian history.
Written by Jaryd Clifford
Located off the beaten track in outback Western Australia, over 800km north-east of Perth, the town of Leonora exists in relative isolation. Most Australian’s will never set foot there, and many may go their entire life without ever hearing its name.
Even Australia’s most accomplished marathon...
James Hansen, the sixty-ninth Australian to run a mile in under four-minutes, waited in the wings. He covered every move, stalking the leaders with flawless precision. It is easy to spot him amidst the fray, built for the brawl, his arms swinging like a barrage of punches. Hansen, now aged twenty-five, has run in six Australian 1500m finals, never medalling. This race, the 2018 Commonwealth Games trials, would be the most agonising. For a fleeting moment, with only fifty metres left to run, he hit the front. Besieged by the nation’s best milers, he dared to dream of winning. It was not to be. In the final strides, it all unravelled, swamped on the line in an unforgivable falter. For the second time in his career, he would finish fourth, only five one-hundredths-of-a-second shy of the medal he so desperately wanted to win.
A column by Jaryd Clifford – Runner’s Tribe
Standing on the submerged start line in the middle of Oakbank Racecourse, shivering and shin deep in mud, I was utterly bewildered at my predicament. I was thirteen, a diminutive figure preparing to run in the National Cross Country. It was something I...
