Robert De Castella
Robert de Castella in 1983
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| Personal information | |
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| Full name | Francois Robert de Castella |
| Born |
27 February 1957 Melbourne, Australia |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Weight | 65 kg (143 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Long-distance running |
| Club | Old Xaverians, Glenhuntly Athletics Club, Melbourne Mazda Optimists Track Club |
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Medal record
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Francois Robert "Rob" de Castella AO, MBE (born 27 February 1957) is an Australian former world champion marathon runner.
De Castella is widely known as "Deek" or "Deeks" to the Australian public, and "Tree" to his competitors due to his thick legs and inner calm. He holds the Oceanian record for the marathon.
De Castella is of Swiss-French descent. He was born in Melbourne, Victoria, the eldest of seven children. Sport was a way of life in his family – his father Rolet ran marathons in his fifties. His mother Anne was a state-level tennis player. His brother Nicholas, took part in four World Cross Country Championships, whereas brother Anthony competed in running at club level for more than 25 years. Rob de Castella was an outstanding track athlete as a teenager and trained under Pat Clohessy from the age of 14.
De Castella first came to international attention when he won the 1981 Fukuoka Marathon in a time of 2:08:18, which was the fastest time recorded for an out-and-back course. It was not initially known to be a world best time, because his time was 5 seconds slower than the time set by Alberto Salazar in the 1981 New York City Marathon. It later emerged that the New York course was about 148 metres short. De Castella's time was later ratified as the world record.
De Castella was the favourite to win the marathon at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. At the start of the race, Tanzanians Gidamis Shahanga and Juma Ikangaa raced to the lead and were 50 m ahead of the pack after five minutes. After the 20 km mark, this gap had widened to several hundred meters. By the 23 km mark, Ikangaa had taken the lead from his compatriot, with de Castella in the main pack some 250 m behind, but closing. de Castella passed the now tiring Shahanga at the 38 km mark, and in the next kilometre drew level with Ikangaa then took the lead. However Ikangaa was not done yet, and re-took the lead slightly. The duel continued for the remainder of the race. Eventually de Castella pulled away, and won by 80 m in a time of 2:09:18, 12 seconds ahead of Ikangaa. Briton Mike Gratton finished third in 2:12:06, and Shahanga faded to finish 6th. The race finished on the streets of Brisbane, not in the main stadium.
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