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Mother of four takes out marathon
16 September 2002, by Mike HurstSIXTEEN years before Heather Turland entered into running folklore winning Commonwealth gold, the marathon cast its spell on Australians when the nation stopped to watch Rob de Castella win at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games. Deek came from far out of sight to chase down the great front-running Tanzanians, Juma Ikangaa and Gidamis Shahanga.
Australia's love affair with the marathon and its fearless road warriors has been sustained in recent times by champions such as Steve Moneghetti, Lisa Ondieki and Kerryn McCann, as well as Turland. The mother of four from Bowral won her Games title at the age of 38 in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and, although she missed the Olympics and "retired" in 2000, she was back on the road again yesterday. The pixie of the pavement demonstrated she had lost none of the elegance of her stride in winning gold again in the Flora Sydney Marathon. And, after an even longer absence from the elite scene, the Tanzanians are also back – thanks in large portion to Australian benefactors who formed the John Stephen Akhwari Athletics Foundation which funds the Tanzanian development squad.
Akhwari was immortalised in the Mexico Olympics documentary film by Bud Greenspan as the last man to finish the marathon. "My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish," Akhwari famously reasoned when asked why he refused to quit when injured. He would be proud of his countryman yesterday. So would Ikangaa and Shahanga and Tanzania's other greats, Filbert Bayi and Suleiman Nyambui, both silver medallists on the track at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The new generation of Tanzanian runners swept the medals in the Flora Sydney Marathon.
Stephen Bwire won in 2hr 17min 30sec from Patrick Nyangelo (2:17.35) and Marwa Dickson (2:19.57). All three broke Damon Harris's race record (2:25.49) and, although the course is now substantially changed from the Olympic route, all ran times which rank in the first 36 at the 2000 Games. With evangelical zeal their coach, the great Nyambui, has appealed for Australians to continue supporting the Foundation because politicians in Tanzania don't.
"I'm proud of the Australian people," Nyambui said. "We produced the world junior championship 1500m medallist [Samwel Mwera, third in yesterday's Bridge Run], the Manchester Games 10,000m bronze medallist [John Yuda] and all these results in just 18 months. Without the foundation none of this would be achieved."
A meeting between Athletics Australia CEO Simon Allatson and head coach Keith Connor, Nyambui and the foundation will be held today to decide whether some Tanzanians will return to compete in the Telstra A-series this summer.
As the first Australian to finish yesterday, Melbourne physiotherapist Jeremy Horne (2:25.28) took the national title from Canberra's Paul Imhoff (2:26.44) and Sutherland club's John Bowers (2:30.39).
"We weren't even with the Tanzanians after the first kilometre. We knew they were going for 2:17. We were fighting instead for the national championship," Horne said.
Turland took the national women's title in 2hr 51min 5sec in finishing 21st overall, with Sarah Mycroft (2:55.57) 29th overall and Natalie Karl (2:58.15) taking the bronze medal. Kurt Fearnley (1:39.55) won the wheelchair marathon from New Zealand's Gavin Foulsham (1:49.03).
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