Josh Clarke, Australia’s fastest man, has a gold medal-winning secret in his corner

JOSH Clarke is Australia’s fastest man and he’s got a gold medal-winning secret in his corner as he prepares for the Rio Olympics.

18/12/2015: Nancy Atterton ( coach) and Josh Clarke - 200 metre sprinter. Athlete pictured in Baulkham Hills. Sydney. The Australian / Renee Nowytarger

IT IS 65 years since Nancy Atterton decided to get serious about her running and while she has slowed down a bit lately, the one-time athletics golden girl reckons she is about to unleash lightning.

The 81-year-old, who won a gold medal at the 1954 Empire (now Commonwealth) Games in Vancouver, coaches Josh Clarke, the fastest man in Australia. She says his national championship in Brisbane last year was just the start of big things.

Atterton has coached the 20-year-old in Sydney since he was a Year 7 schoolboy, instilling in him the wisdom, drive and determination she learned running alongside Olympic great Marjorie Jackson, Winsome Cripps and Gwen Wallace when the awesome foursome of that era won the 4x100m gold medal at Vancouver.

Last March, Sydney University commerce student Clarke won the Australian 100m title in Brisbane, running 10.16sec, just 0.03sec outside the qualifying time for the world championships in Beijing in August.

It was the fastest time by an Australian in five years and Atterton says her protege is only going to get faster after nine months of solid training since then.

“Josh is a tremendous talent,’’ said Atterton, who started training seriously for athletics in 1950. She rose to the top during a golden age of Australian runners, with Jackson, Marlene Mathews (OK), Shirley Strickland, Betty Cuthbert and Queensland’s first Olympic gold medallist Norma Fleming (nee Croker).

She said the Rio Olympics was just the first goal for Clarke.

“I’ve coached Josh since he was at The King’s School in Sydney and I’ve watched him develop through a lot of hard work,'' she said.

Josh Clarke hopes to be selected for the Rio Olympics. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

“He wants to do a Sally Pearson and shock the world. He’s very single-minded.’’

So single-minded that Clarke elected not to pursue other avenues to qualify for the world championships last year and instead devoted himself to training so he could prime himself for a big shot at the Olympics.

“Josh ran a very good 200m a couple of weeks ago in Sydney,’’ Atterton said.

“He’s still only 20 and even though we’re aiming for him to qualify for the Rio Olympics we don’t feel he’ll be at his best until the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

“He’s still developing. If he qualifies for Rio that will be a bonus.’’

Athletics has changed dramatically since the days when Atterton ran on grass tracks in Sydney, when her sport was purely amateur. But the men’s 100m has always been the stellar event of the Olympics. Australia’s first success came when Stan Rowley took bronze behind American Frank Jarvis in Paris in 1900. Jarvis ran 11sec, Rowley 11.2. Usain Bolt now holds the world record at 9.58.sec.

“Even though sports science and coaching has improved over the years in many ways it’s tougher now for a kid to reach the top,’’ Nancy says.

“When I was running we didn’t have fast foods and you didn’t see obesity like you do today.

“Young people didn’t go out at 10pm and come home at three in the morning.

“But I’m lucky with Josh because he has his head in the right place. He has old-fashioned determination.’’

Some of history’s greatest athletes have won the 100m title during Atterton’s lifetime, starting with the black American Jesse Owens shocking Adolf Hitler and his Nazi notions of Aryan supremacy at Berlin in 1936.

There was Ben Johnson powered by a truckload of steroids rocketing past Carl Lewis in Seoul, the flying Scotsman Allan Wells in boycott-hit Moscow, the blistering Brit Linford Christie and the America bulldozers Jim Hines, Bob Hayes, Maurice Greene and Justin Gatlin.

Atterton can only marvel at the 195cm Usain Bolt, the best sprinter she has seen, striding out to glory in Beijing and London.

“Bolt is a freak,’’ she said. “It’s almost unheard of for a man that tall to be so well co-ordinated for sprinting.

“Normally most tall men don’t start well.’’

Australia has not had a runner in the men’s Olympic 100m since Josh Ross in 2004 but Atterton is confident that is about to change.

She said 178cm Clarke reminded her physically of Rockhampton’s Hec Hogan, our last Olympic medallist in the event.

In 1954 Hogan set a world record for the 100 yards on grass in Sydney, won bronze at Vancouver and in 1956 won bronze at the Melbourne Olympics behind Americans Bobby Morrow and Thane Baker.

He is the last Australian to win a medal in the men’s 100m.

He died of leukaemia in Brisbane only four years later after listening to a radio broadcast of German Armin Hary’s 100m win in Rome.

Originally published as Josh Clarke, Australia’s fastest man, has a gold medal-winning secret in his corner