Australia’s international running star Craig Mottram, 34, of Melbourne won the gigantic  (81,420 finishers!) Sun-Herald City2Surf race in Sydney, Australia, Sun., Aug. 10, as he covered the 14K distance in 41:51 to win by 23 seconds.

Brad Milosevic, 25, of Sydney was the runner-up as he ran 42:14. Jeffrey Hunt, 32, finished third in 42:30.

The 6’2”, 157-pound Mottram has been Australia’s top distance runner for the better part of a decade now. He finished third in the 5000 at the 2005 World Track and Field Championships in Helsinki, Finland, becoming the only non-African runner to win a medal in that event at the Olympics or World Championships since 1987. The following year he finished second in the 5000 at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, recording a time of 12:58.19 as he was narrowly beaten by Kenyan Augustine Choge. Mottram was also favored to win the 1500 at those Games but he tripped at the 800-meter mark when an English runner fell behind him and the tall Australian wound up placing only ninth.

In more recent years Mottram has had some injury problems that have hampered him, but he still ranks as Australia’s premier distance runner -- with personal bests of 3:33.97 for the 1500, 3:48.98 for the mile, 8:03.50 for the two-mile, 12:55.76 for the 5000 and 27:34.48 for the 10,000 – and Sunday’s race proved it.

This was the first time Mottram had run the City2Surf race, but he was fully confident he would win.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think so,” he said.

Although he won on Sunday by a considerable margin, he said he did not find the race very easy.

“It was a tough course. I underestimated it a bit. I came up the (biggest) hill and pushed in and got a gap.”

He added as a postscript, “”I have been training a bit, and my wife and little boy behind us here … your life gets busy when you are running full time.

“It is great to do it (win) for them. It was hard, we are (now) off on holidays to relax for a week and reassess.”

The women’s winner in the City2Surf race on Sunday was Casey Wood, 22, from Adelaide, who ran 47:53.

Milly Clark, 26, of Sydney was second in 48:38 and Clare Geraghty, 21, of Brisbane third in 49:24.

Wood said afterwards, “(It was) really tough, much tougher than I thought. Heartbreak Hill absolutely killed, but I could hang in there, so that was alright.”

She added that Sunday’s race was just a warm up for an even bigger challenge she’s set for herself.

“I have been trying to aim for the marathon next year, so I thought this would be a really good lead-up to that because of all the hills.

“I just wanted to run strongly, and I did it.”

There were 39,833 male finishers and 41,587 female finishers in this year’s City2Surf 14K. How do you accommodate more than 80,000 people at a starting line? By sending runners off in staggered starts over an hour and a half, that’s how!

The City2Surf 14K has been held since 1971, so this was the 44^th annual edition of the race. This year’s event raised more than $4,000,000 for charity.  

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