On December the 6th, it will be 40 years since we saw one of the great performances in Australian distance running history, when Robert de Castella won the 1981 Fukuoka Marathon in Japan, in a world record of 2.08.18. De Castella – known worldwide as ‘Deek’ – beat the 12 year-old record of fellow Australian Derek Clayton by 16 seconds and launched a marvelous career. At the time, however, de Castella’s time was not recognized as a world record. More on this later.
