Today marks 60 years since the Australian runner broke the 5000m world record
On January 16, 1965, Australian middle distance legend Ron Clarke made history by breaking his fourth world record. This time he lowered Vladimir Kutz’s long-standing 5000m mark by a fifth of a second with a time of 13:34.8.
Clarke’s time was set on the grass track in Hobart, Tasmania, where he dominated the race from start to finish, outrunning almost all of his rivals.
At the time, Clarke was no stranger to the world record books, already holding the three-mile (13:07.6), six-mile (27:17.8) and 10,000m (28:15.6) records, becoming the first athlete since Finn Tysto Mäki (1939-42) to do so. , who caught all four at the same time.
1965 would prove to be a breakthrough year for Clarke as he set an astonishing 11 world records at eight different distances.
Less than three weeks after her victory in Hobart, Clarke returned to action in Auckland on 1 February, once again bettering her own record with a new time of 13:33.6 at Western Springs Stadium.
In June, Clark traveled to Los Angeles, where he once again obliterated his 5000m record, posting a 13:25.8 at the Compton Invitational.In this race, he also broke another record of his own, running 13:00.4 for the three miles.
However, Clark’s exploits were not limited to this. In March, he had already set the 10-mile world record, finishing with a time of 47:12.8.
In June 1965, he traveled to Turku, Finland, where he improved his 10,000 m record of 28:14.0, although it was never officially validated due to a problem with race permits.
However, he continued to improve his form, lowering his three-mile mark to 12:52.4 in London in July and further improving his six-mile record in Oslo with a 26:47.0 performance as part of a new 10,000m world record of 27:39.4.
He capped off his extraordinary year in Geelong, Australia, where he set both the 20,000m world record of 59:22.8 and the one-hour record, covering an impressive 20,232 meters in that time.
In addition to all the world records he broke during his successful career, his achievements also included an Olympic 10,000m bronze at the Tokyo Games in 1964 and four Commonwealth medals. of the Order of Australia and received an MBE.
To celebrate the 60th anniversary, check out our coverage of all of Ron Clark’s posts: Athletics Weekly Archive, and look at all our examples over the years.
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