Indigenous Aussies to break Africa's distance domination?
Wed 23/06/2010 10:07
Aussie marathon legend Rob de Castella believes indigenous Australians have the potential to break Africa’s domination of distance running, spikesmag.com reports.
De Castella, a former World and Commonwealth marathon champion, has been scouting the Northern Territory of Australia and has unearthed four top prospects who will run in the
New York Marathon in November.
Like many top African marathon runners, the new running talent found by De Castella for his ‘Run to America’ project, are used to training in extreme conditions making them perfect contenders to rival Africa’s finest long distance specialists.
"It's very different to the training most of us would identify with," De Castella told the Australian Daily Telegraph.
"One of the boys is from Maningrida and he finds it difficult to run in town because of dogs chasing him.
"The local cop has to drive him 5km out of town so he can run back home without getting chased and bitten."
De Castella is hoping the Run to America project will help return Australia to a prominent position in the sport even though 38 out of the current top 40 marathoners come from Africa.
“At the moment the Africans are dominant," he said.
"I've talked to people like [AFL coach] Kevin Sheedy about their involvement with indigenous players.
“They have phenomenal endurance, but we've never had a top indigenous endurance athlete.
"It's not because they don't have the talent [to run marathons].
"They've just never had the opportunity or support."