Cliff Young (athlete)
|
Cliff Young OAM |
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|---|---|
| Born |
Albert Ernest Clifford Young 8 February 1922 |
| Died | 2 November 2003 (aged 81) |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Known for | Ultra Marathon winner at the age of 61 |
Albert Ernest Clifford "Cliff" Young, OAM (8 February 1922 – 2 November 2003) was an Australian potato farmer and athlete from Beech Forest, Victoria, best known for his unexpected win of the inaugural Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon in 1983 at 61 years of age.
Born the eldest son and the third of seven children of Mary and Albert Ernest Young on 8 February 1922, Albert Ernest Clifford Young grew up on a farm in Beech Forest in southwestern Victoria. The family farm was approximately 2,000 acres in size with approximately 2,000 sheep. Young would round up the stock on foot, reckoning that it was the easiest method.
In late 1982, after training for months around the Otway Ranges, Young attempted to break Siegfried "Ziggy" Bauer's then world record for 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of 11 days and 23 hours. The attempt took place in Colac's Memorial Square. Young had to abandon the world-record attempt just after half way at 805 km. Reflecting on the failed attempt, Young wrote that he and his support team were inexperienced and ill-prepared.
In 1983, the 61-year-old potato farmer won the inaugural Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, a distance of 875 kilometres (544 mi). The race was run between what were then Australia's two largest Westfield shopping centres: Westfield Parramatta, in Sydney, and Westfield Doncaster, in Melbourne. He ran at a slow loping pace and trailed the leaders for most of the first day, but by running while the others slept, he took the lead the first night and maintained it for the remainder of the race, eventually winning by ten hours.
Before running the race, he told the press that he had previously run for two to three days straight rounding up sheep in gumboots. He claimed afterwards that during the race, he imagined that he was running after sheep and trying to outrun a storm. The Westfield run took him five days, 15 hours and four minutes, almost two days faster than the previous record for any run between Sydney and Melbourne. All six competitors who finished the race broke the previous record. Despite attempting the event again in later years, Young was unable to repeat this performance or claim victory again.
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