THE HARDER THE STRUGGLE, THE GREATER THE REWARD

In 1981, Rob de Castella was the fastest marathoner in the world. He recounts his rise to the top and tells us about his current project.

- Lionel Kong

8th October 1982 was a hot and muggy day in Brisbane, Australia. As the humidity edged over the 90 per cent mark, Australian Rob de Castella was hot on the heels of Tanzania’s Juma Ikangaa on the Commonwealth Games’ Marathon course.

As he battled Ikangaa for the gold medal, de Castella had no idea that this epic duel was captivating the whole country on live television and radio. Millions of Australians were watching and listening, putting everything on hold for a few hours as they watched if the man who set a new marathon world record of 02:08:18 in 1981 could come from behind to outrun Ikangaa.

Ikangaa and his fellow countryman Gidamis Shahanga were ahead of de Castella by 40 seconds at the 20km mark.

By the 30km marker, Ikangaa and Shahanga had established a lead of 58 seconds over de Castella, who remembers how he had to dig deep to increase his pace.

"I didn't know if I was running fast enough to close the gap before I got to the finish," he recalls.

A stomach cramp began to trouble him, but de Castella ignored the pain when he saw Shahanga, in second place, ahead of him. Shahanga had nothing more to give and at the 37km mark, relinquished his position to de Castella.

Just eighty metres ahead was Ikangaa, and de Castella hunted him down just 3km from the finish line. Television broadcasts captured the moment when Ikangaa looked around in surprise as the larger and heavier Australian man raced past.

The two then duelled and exchanged the lead on four occasions within the space of 3km, before de Castella finally took the lead near the end and held on to finish 12 seconds ahead, with a time of 02:09:18.