Steve Moneghetti Gets Bronze

10 August 1997

Steve Moneghetti has claimed the world championship medal he's chased for 10 years in Athens today. Running his 18th marathon, Moneghetti set the seal on Australia's most successful world championship when he ran third behind Spain's Abel Anton and Antonio Fiz.

Moneghetti ran 2:14:10 and was approx one minute behind the winner who clocked 2: 13:06.

After the race, an emotional Moneghetti declared it was probably his last world championships.

He also said that he will bid for the 1972 Olympic 100 metre sprint medal Raelene Boyle has been forced to put up for sale to pay for her breast cancer treatment, and plans to return it to her.

Report from the Sydney Morning Herald :

Steve Moneghetti's face was contorted in pain. He was shattered, shaking and sweating more than seemed humanly possible. After 18 marathons, the 34-year-old veteran finally had a world championship medal. He could die happy.

"No-one can take this away from me," Moneghetti said. "I'm struggling to stand up, but I have the rest of my life to recover. I have proved I can run in the heat. I deserve this. This is going to be my last marathon for a while. It is getting too hard on my body. It is too tough. Eighteen marathons. My body is saying I have to stop this.

"My legs are throbbing, my heart is struggling but I don't care. I have a medal, something to hold for the photographs. "Now I can throw my medal around my neck forever. I can go now if I want. I can retire. I have all I ever wanted."

Moneghetti's medal was bronze, but it meant as much to him as gold. He paid tribute to the new Spanish world champion he didn't know, Abel Anton, a distance runner who is a new convert to the marathon.

In brutal heat over the classic course from Marathon to the historic marble Panathinaikon Stadium in downtown Athens, Anton ran away from world champion teammate Martin Fiz 400-metres from the line to win in 2hr 13min 16s.

Fiz, who had led from the 30km mark, had to settle for silver in 2:13:21, while Moneghetti, who moved into third at 35km, took his long-awaited medal in 2:14:16s.

If someone hasn't already beaten him to it, Moneghetti said he would use his $US20,000 prizemoney to buy Raelene Boyle's Olympic silver medal, which she wants to sell to pay for cancer treatment. "I'd buy them off her and give them straight back," Moneghetti said. "You can't put a price on a medal."

The conditions were so appallingly hot that more than one third of the field of 108 did not finish. The tunnel inside the stadium looked like a MASH unit after the finish with stretchers and bodies lying everywhere amid frantic medical support.

But Moneghetti had had an ideal preparation, acclimatising in Townsville, in a heat chamber at home in Ballarat on a bike and in the summer heat of Rome. He had a sluggish start, hit a bad patch in the middle but at 30km he was fifth and charging home. He was aware he was following a course won 101 years ago by an honest hardworking man like himself, a Greek water carrier called Spyridon Louis.

"In the middle I thought I was gone, I started to hit the wall at 39 to 40km," the Ballarat medallist said. "I thought I was not going to make it, but I was inspired on by Spyridon Louis. If he could make it over those mountains, I could, too."

Australia finished seventh (unofficial) on the marathon team medal list after Sean Quilty came home in 27th place in 2:23:10 and Ray Boyd was 53rd in 2:32:07s. Rod de Highden was the second-last runner home, in 69th place in 3:03:44.

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