Australian Top 5 Distance Runners

It's Australia Day, so here is our rossrunning.com list of the top 5 Australian distance runners.

1) Herb Elliott The 1960 Olympic gold medalist at 1500 meters set world records at both 1500 meters and the mile and was the first man under 3:55 in the mile. He never lost a 1500 or mile race from 1957-1961.

2) Ron Clarke He was the 1964 Olympic bronze medalist at 10,000 meters. He set 12 world records in one season and was the first man under 28 minutes for 10,000 meters, running 27:39.4.

3) Rob De Castella He was the 1983 World Championships gold medalist in the marathon, twice won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games marathon, set the marathon world record of 2:08:18 in 1981 and competed in 4 straight Olympic games from 1980-1992, finishing 10th, 5th, 8th and 26th.

4) John Landy He was the bronze medalist in the 1956 Olympic 1500 meters, the second man under 4 minutes in the mile and set the world record of 3:57.9, which would stand for 3 years.

5) Steve Moneghetti He was the 1997 World Championships bronze medalist in the marathon, the 1994 Commonwealth Games gold medalist and competed in 4 straight Olympic Games for Australia from 1988-2000. His highest finish was 5th in 1988. He still competes at a world class level at the age of 53.

Honorable mention

Craig Mottram Lee Troop Al Lawrence

#RonClark #SteveMoneghetti #CraigMottram #LeeTroop #AlLawrence #HerbElliott #RobDeCastella #JohnLandy