One of Australia’s greatest distance runners, Ron Clarke, has died on Queensland’s Gold Coast. He was 78.
Clarke was a dual Olympian competing in Tokyo in 1964 where he won a bronze medal in the 10,000 metres and again at the 1968 Mexico Games where he finished 5th in the 5,000 metres and 6th in the 10,000 metres.
He was a dominant distance runner throughout the 1960s setting an amazing 19 world records.
Olympic champion Herb Elliott paid tribute to Clarke today saying "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. Ron will be greatly missed".
Clarke was awarded the honour of lighting the flame at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Earlier that year he was involved in one of the greatest acts of sportsmanship ever witnessed on an athletic’s track when at the Australian Titles the great John Landy stopped during the Mile to help Clarke who had fallen on the track.
Landy then resumed running and won the race.
Clarke was one of the original inductees into the Sport Australia Hall Of Fame in 1985 and in more recent times served as Mayor of the Gold Coast with distinction.
Chairman of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, John Bertrand, said today "Ron Clarke was not only known as a world class athlete but a man who contributed enormously to the community."
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