Craig Mottram (© Getty Images)
World Cup 3000m champion Craig Mottram yesterday smashed the Australian 5km road running best at Noosa in what he expects is the start of a barrier-breaking summer for him.
The first Australian male ever to win an event at the IAAF World Cup when he ran off with the track 3000m in Madrid in September, the tall Victorian yesterday clocked 13:43 to clip 3 seconds from the previous best set by Andrew Letherby in Providence, Rhode Island four years ago.
Mottram defeated Lee Troop (14:00), Brett Cartwright (14:01), Mark Thompson (14:03) and Steve Moneghetti (14:05) among others, while Canberra's Benita Johnson won the women's 5km Noosa Bolt in 15:22 from Susie Power (15:45) and Hayley McGregor (16:45).
"My nickname is `Buster' and that's what I want to do: bust records,'' Mottram said after the race while sunning himself at Noosa beach on Queensland's glorious Sunshine Coast.
"I want all of them. I want to get to another level. I want to take the 5000m record under 13:00 and the 3000m record under 7:30."
"'ll go after the 10,000m record if I run the Zatopek meet but there's a 10km road race in Doha on December 10 so if I do that I'll miss the Zatopek (in Melbourne, December 14).''
Mottram, 22, from Geelong, said his plans were set to run 5000m at the 2003 Paris World Championships.
Mike Hurst (Daily Telegraph, Sydney, Australia) for the IAAF