Commonwealth Games Flashback: Robert de Castella runs into history in 1982 marathon
THE 1982 Commonwealth Games featured dozens of highlights but it would be hard to beat Robert de Castella’s marathon gold as the greatest of them all.
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ON a spring day at the Commonwealth Games in 1982 an Australian sporting legend was born.
A man with a moustache to rival the other great sporting mo’s of the era in John Newcombe and Dennis Lillee pulled off one of the great marathon triumphs in Brisbane.
Having sprung to prominence with a world best time with victory in the 1981 Fukuoka Marathon, Robert de Castella would go on to win World Championship gold in 1983 but it was his battle with two Tanzanians through the streets of Brisbane that remain firm in our collective sporting memory.
He recalls the moment as one of his “great memories” from a career that included four Olympic Games and three top 10 finishes but no medal.
De Castella, now 61, said he cannot return to Brisbane without walking into memory-joggers of his captivating performance in 1982.
“I was at South Bank in Brisbane just a few weeks ago and to look at it now and think how different it looked in 1982, when the marathon started and finished there,’’ said de Castella, who was one of the standard bearers for Australian sport in the leaner times of the early 1980s.
“The 1982 Games was a launching pad for my career. Everything changed for me after that. The privilege of running a marathon in front of my countrymen and women was incredible and I’m so excited for our Australian runners, led by Michael Shelley and Jessica Trengove, to have that opportunity this time at the Gold Coast.’’
Only the over 40s doing battle through peak hour traffic in the riverside Coronation Drive that they are on ground which proved crucial in one of Australia’s best loved Commonwealth Games gold medals
Few marathons could match the excitement of de Castella’s cat-and-mouse game with Tanzania’s Juma Ikangaa after overhauling early co-leader and defending champion Gidamis Shahanga. After an hour of the race, Ikangaa and Shahanga led a chasing pack, which included de Castella, by more than 200m.
Ikangaa shook Shahanga off and ABC commentators estimated de Castella was 500m behind as the marathon past the University of Queensland.
Toowong’s Regatta Hotel, beloved by generations of merry university students, at the western end of Coronation Drive figures prominently in de Castella’s recollections.
“When we ran past soon after 7.30am, people had been out partying the night before _ it was the second last day of the Games and the way the Games had just captivated everyone in Brisbane, there was an incredible festive atmosphere,’’ he said.
“The energy and the cheers of the crowd was just amazing.’’
At the 39km mark down the other end of “Coro Drive’’, de Castella surged past Ikangaa amid euphoric scenes, but YouTube footage shows his lead was held for 22 sec only before the diminutive Tanzanian wrested it back.
The Australian stayed in second place for 53 long seconds before finding another spurt, holding the lead this time only for 11 sec.
Ikangaa stayed in front for 24 sec before de Castella’s decisive move and the local favourite steamed over the William Jolly Bridge into South Brisbane in isolation.
“It’s a performance to remember for all time,’’ said ABC commentator Tim Lane as he neared the finish line.
“I have some photos of the crowd there and around the finish line (in South Brisbane),’’ de Castella said.
“It was like I was running into a sea of people and when I got within a couple of strides of them, they’d open up and I’d see the course.
“These days, organisers wouldn’t let the crowd get that close to the runners. It’s a bit of shame because that Brisbane race is one of the great memories I have of my athletics.’’
De Castella has a replica of his 1982 Games gold medal because the original was destroyed when his home was burned to the ground during the 2003 Canberra fires.
“We lost everything. I was down the south coast with my family when those terrible fires destroyed about 400 homes. We had what we’d taken to the beach with us,’’ he said.
“But we were safe and it was an incredible learning experience. I worked on a five-person recovery task force and I was representing the community directly affected.
“All of them (the 1983 world champs gold and his two Commonwealth golds) were destroyed. The Commonwealth Games Federation re-struck the gold medals and I got a replacement gold medal for the world championships.’’
The 2018 Games marathon course starts and finishes at Southport Broadwater Parklands, with the mostly coastal route snaking out and back to Runaway Bay, then south to Surfers Paradise and beachside Burleigh before the runners wind up for home.
“This is a very similar course to the Gold Coast Airport Marathon course,’’ de Castella said.
“It will be a great backdrop for the area to showcase the beauty of the Gold Coast to the world. That’s what the marathon can do for a city.
“The course has been managed by the same team who do the GC Airport marathon every year and it’s the pre-eminent marathon in Australia and has a reputation internationally.
“Hopefully it will be a legacy event people remember, like Kerryn McCann’s was in 2006. Inside the MCG recently, I saw a big poster of Kerryn and that was certainly an iconic sporting moment.’’
Originally published as Commonwealth Games Flashback: Robert de Castella runs into history in 1982 marathon
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