Cliff Young (athlete)

Born the eldest son and the third of seven children of Mary and Albert Ernest Young on 8 February 1922, Albert Ernest Clifford Young grew up on a farm in Beech Forest in southwestern Victoria.[1] The family farm was approximately 2,000 acres (810 ha) in size with approximately 2,000 sheep.[5] As a child Young was forced to round up the stock on foot as the family were very poor during the depression and could not afford horses.[1]

In late 1982, after training for months around the Otway Ranges, Young attempted to break New Zealander Siegfried "Ziggy" Bauer's then world record for 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of 11 days and 23 hours. The attempt took place in Colac's Memorial Square. Young had to abandon the world record attempt just after halfway at 805 kilometres (500 mi). Reflecting on the failed attempt, Young wrote that he and his support team were inexperienced and ill-prepared.[1]

In 1983, the 61-year-old potato farmer won the inaugural Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, a distance of 875 kilometres (544 mi). The race was run between what were then Australia's two largest Westfield shopping centres, Westfield Parramatta in Sydney and Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne.[6] Young arrived to compete in overalls and work boots, without his dentures (later saying that they rattled when he ran).[7] He ran at a slow and loping pace and trailed the pack by a large margin at the end of the first day. While the other competitors stopped to sleep for six hours, Young kept running. He ran continuously for five days, taking the lead during the first night and eventually winning by 10 hours. Before running the race, he had told the press that he had previously run for two to three days straight rounding up sheep in gumboots.[8] He said afterwards that during the race he imagined he was running after sheep trying to outrun a storm. The Westfield run took him five days, fifteen hours and four minutes,[1] almost two days faster than the previous record for any run between Sydney and Melbourne, at an average speed of 6.5 kilometres per hour (4.0 mph). All six competitors who finished the race broke the old record. Upon being awarded the prize of A$10,000 (equivalent to $32,067 in 2018), Young said that he did not know there was a prize and that he felt bad accepting it as each of the other five runners who finished had worked as hard as he did—so he split the money equally between them, keeping none.[9]

Young became very popular after this "tortoise and hare" feat, so much so that in Colac, Victoria, the Cliff Young Australian Six-Day Race was established that same year. In 1984, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia "for long distance running".[10]

Despite attempting the event again in later years, Young was unable to repeat this performance or claim victory again.[6]

In 1997, at age 75,[11] he made an attempt to beat Ron Grant's around-Australia record. He completed 6,520 kilometres of the 16,000-kilometre run, but had to pull out because his only crew member became ill.[3]

In 2000, Young achieved a world age record in a six-day race in Victoria.[11]

Memorial to Young in the form of a gumboot in Beech Forest, Victoria

Cliff Young memorial plaque

Young was a vegetarian from 1973 until his death.[12] He lived at the family home with his mother and brother Sid. Young had remained single throughout his life, but after the 1983 race, at 62 years of age, he married 23-year-old Mary Howell. The race sponsor, Westfield, hosted the wedding for the entertainment of shoppers.[6] Young and Howell divorced five years later.[11] Renowned for his ungainly running style, Young ran more than 20,000 kilometres during his competitive career.[11] After five years of illness and several strokes, he died of cancer at the age of 81 on 2 November 2003 at his home in Queensland.[2]

A memorial in the shape of a gumboot in Beech Forest is dedicated to Young and the Cliff Young Drive and Cliff Young Park there are named after him.

The "Young Shuffle" has been adopted by some ultramarathon runners because it expends less energy.[2] At least three winners of the Sydney-to-Melbourne race were known to use the "Young Shuffle" to win the race. In 2010, comedian Hannah Gadsby named her Sydney Comedy Festival show "The Cliff Young Shuffle" in tribute.

In May 2013, ABC1 broadcast Cliffy, a telemovie about Young's victorious 1983 run. The telemovie starred Kevin Harrington as Young, with his race support team played by Roy Billing as his coach Wally, Anne Tenney as his sister Eunice and Joshua Hine as Paul. Krew Boylan featured as Mary Howell and Young's mother was played by Joan Sydney.[13]

Young appeared briefly as himself in an episode (No. 479) of the television drama Prisoner: Cell Block H.

• Media related to Cliff Young (athlete) at Wikimedia Commons
• Cliff Young Rest in Peace