Les Croupiers Running Club Forum

http://www.9news.com.au/...-champion-ron-clark-dies

WHAT THEY SAID

“Today we lost a true legend of Australian Sport. Vale Ron Clarke #runfastrunhard” - Australian long-distance runner STEVE MONEGHETTI

“Ron Clarke .. star on the track, a great man off the track. Athletics has lost a true statesman. RIP Ron.” - Champion Olympic hurdler and Gold Coast resident SALLY PEARSON

“Very sad news to hear of the passing of 1 of the greats of the athletics family. RIP Ron Clarke. Thoughts with Helen” - Australian Olympic middle distance runner TAMSYN LEWIS MANOU

"Getting to know Ron Clarke through the Gold Coast Com Games bid was a highlight. A legend of our sport & a genuine gentleman. #rip.” - champion Australian paralympian KURT FEARNLEY

“Ron was a great man. His contribution to athletics was enormous. He was also a wonderful contributor to public health through lifestyle programs and gymnasiums and the communities in which he lived.” - Olympic champion HERB ELLIOTT

"Ron Clarke set new standards of training and application that raised the bar to a level that the world of athletics at that era had never seen before.” - Sport Australia Hall of Fame chairman JOHN BERTRAND

“There’s a few Australians that have medalled on the track but Ron certainly is up there with the best” - Australian marathon runner PAT CARROLL

“Ron will forever be a legend of our sport and we are grateful for his extensive contribution to the sport of athletics, as well as to public service during a life that should be celebrated.” - Athletics Australia president DAVID GRACE QC

“Over many years, and thousands more miles, Ron Clarke’s tenacity, determination and character were tested but never conquered.” - Opposition Leader BILL SHORTEN

http://www.racingpast.ca/john_contents.php?id=157

IT was the opening track final of the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, yet it was perhaps the defining moment of what became known as "The Friendly Games".

On a squally July afternoon of intermittent drizzle the unheralded Lachie Stewart outsprinted Australia's iconic multiple world record-breaker Ron Clarke to win the 10,000 metres title. Running more than 20 seconds faster than ever before, Stewart set a Games record, and a Scottish native best of 28min 11.8sec which still endures.

Even today that victory remains almost beyond comprehension. Clarke had set 19 world records; he was the Haile Gebrselassie or Kenenisa Bekele of his era. He broke 12 in 44 days alone, including being the first man under 13 minutes for 5000m, and first inside 28 for 10k.

Clarke's Olympic bronze, won in Tokyo in 1964, was scant reward for one who so peerlessly graced his sport. It prompted a wonderful gesture by Zatopek as Clarke was leaving Prague: "He came on to the plane with me and had a little parcel wrapped in brown paper tied with string. I had the front seat and he handed it to me as we said goodbye.

"I didn't know whether I was smuggling contraband or whatever. I thought I'd better wait until I was through customs in England before I opened it, and if something was discovered I could say I knew nothing about it: that it was just something a friend gave to me. But I lost my nerve while we were doing that interminable taxi-ing round Heathrow and I had a look.

"I held Zatopek in very high esteem. Emotionally it's pretty hard to describe: a phenomenal thing. It keeps on coming back: why he decided to give it to me. There must have been some sort of respect there, or recognition for what I'd done and how frustrated I'd become by the series of things that occurred."

http://www.heraldscotlan...denying-me-gold.23428055

Tracey - No:1 watch the video. Just be inspired. The top athletes of the day, like Ron Clarke, inspired me as a kid. Just let them inspire you.

This is a lovely excerpt of an article about Ron Clarke and his meeting with Emil Zatopek (http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2012/jun/22/50-olympic-stunning-moments-emil-zatopek)

'In 1968 the Australian athlete Ron Clarke came to visit. One of the world's fastest distance runners for a decade, Clarke had suffered from a string of bad luck at major championships, and in that year's Olympics in Mexico City had collapsed and very nearly died from altitude sickness. For all his lack of success Zatopek respected him as an athlete and liked him as a person, and the two spent a pleasurable day together. When he dropped Clarke off at the airport, Zatopek embraced him warmly and handed him a small parcel. "Not out of friendship but because you deserve it," he said.

Clarke kept the package in his pocket until his plane was in the air. "I wondered whether I was smuggling something out for him. I retired to the privacy of the lavatory. When I unwrapped the box, there, inscribed with my name and that day's date, was Emil's Olympic 10,000-metre gold medal. I sat on that toilet seat and wept," Clarke said'

Edited by user 24 June 2015 21:10:12(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified