Making of a Coast icon
This weekend marks the 41st anniversary of the first Gold Coast Marathon – but it didn’t start out as the prestigious event it is today. looks back through the years at the rise and rise of one of the world’s great sporting occasions...
TODAY the Gold Coast Marathon is regarded as one of the foremost events of its kind in Australia.
It brings tens of millions of dollars into the economy, attracts thousands of competitors and is now considered a jewel in the city’s crown as Australia’s tourism capital.
But it had much more humble beginnings. It began not as major event but as a community celebration to encourage locals to be healthy.
This weekend’s event marks 41 years since the inaugural one was held on September 2, 1979.
It was founded by the members of the Surfers Paradise Central Rotary Club as part of a health awareness campaign.
While today’s marathon weekend is based at the Southport Broadwater Parklands, the original 42.2km course began and finished at Bundall’s Evandale precinct, which had been developed into the city’s civic centre a handful of years earlier.
The 1980 event was not just the first of the decade but also showed the strength of the Gold Coast Marathon, which had such a large surge in participation that it immediately became Australia’s second-largest marathon.
That year the men’s race was won by British-born Andrew Lloyd who was at the beginning of his career as a distance runner.
A decade later he went on to win gold for Australia at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games in the 5000m event.
With the success of the first two marathons, organisers were keenly aware they needed to boost its international profile if it was to gain global prestige.
Taking advantage of the Gold Coast’s iconic beachfront, the marathon’s course was moved to Surfers Paradise, with runners then tracking along the coastline.
This vision of having picture-perfect backdrops for elite athletes proved to have long-lasting implications, with much of this route used in last year’s 2018 Commonwealth Games and beamed around the world.
Through the remainder of the 1980s the event’s start and finish moved several times, from Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club to Kurrawa Park in Broadbeach and finally, in 1991, Southport.
Among the most notable figures during the first decade was Gold Coast runner Laurie Adams, a teacher from Miami High who went on to stun the crowd by winning the 1987 marathon, beating race favourites Takashi Kaneda and Yaskhiro Shimizu from Japan.
Brisbane runner Pat Carroll won the 1986 and 1988 marathons as well as the 1987 half-marathon.
There was significant controversy surrounding the 1990 marathon. Yasushi Hashimoto crossed the finish line first and was initially declared the winner before being disqualified.
Judges ruled he had breached the rules by using a cyclist as a pacesetter for the final 5km of the race.
The win was instead awarded to Allan Carman.
Throughout the 1990s the marathon continued to grow in size drawing more than 10,000 competitors annually.
In 1996 it saw couple Amanda Dann and Lee Pratt tie the knot at the start line.
It briefly relocated to Runaway Bay in 1999 but returned to Southport three years later.
Despite this success, the event fell into debt by the year 2000, as longtime name sponsor JAL withdrew.
Then-Queensland Premier Peter Beattie threw the event a lifeline, with his government allowing Gold Coast Events Management, a subsidiary of the Government’s Queensland Events Corporation, to take over.
The 2000s proved to be a strong decade, with the number of runners reaching 20,000 by 2008.
That year, New Zealand’s Shireen Crumpton became the first woman in more than 20 years to win a second marathon after taking out the title previously in 2003.
The 2009 marathon became famous for featuring the closest finish in its history for the women’s race.
Western Australia’s Lauren Shelley edged out Queenslander Roxie Schmidt in a sprint finish over the final 100 metres to win in 2:42.22.
That year the Gold Coast Bulletin 5km challenge was introduced.
There were plenty of memorable moments through the 2010s, with Kenya’s Kenneth Mungara winning back-to-back victories in 2015 and 2016 and coming close to a third consecutive win before he was beaten in 2017 by Japan’s Takuya Noguchi.
But Mungara surged back last year to win his third marathon and is aiming for his fourth tomorrow.
That same year Kenya’s Ruth Chebitok lowered the women’s race record to 2:24:49.
Australian Paralympics darling Madison de Rozario took out the women’s Wheelchair Marathon last year just a few months after winning two gold medals at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
With this year’s marathon beginning tomorrow, history is set to be made again.