The Cliff Young Australian

6 Day Race The 6-Day Race became a standard footrace distance in the 1870s and was a popular form of entertainment with up to 70,000 paying visitors during such a Pedestrians event. However the widespread use of the bicycle from 1890 caused it to be replaced ...

was an

ultramarathon An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of . Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of to over . 50k and 100k are bot ...

race that takes place in

Colac, Victoria Colac is a small city in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne on the southern shore of Lake Colac. History For thousands of years clans of the Gulidjan people occupied the region o ...

. One of a small handful of Six Day races around the world, the Cliff Young has had many fine performances culminating in November 2005 with

Yiannis Kouros Yiannis Kouros ( el, Γιάννης Κούρος, ; born 13 February 1956 in Tripoli, Kingdom of Greece) is a Greek ultramarathon runner based in Greece. He is sometimes given the epithets "Running god", "Pheidippides' Successor" or "Son of Ph ...

, arguably the best multiday runner in the world, setting a new world 6 Day record. It started in 1983 and was renamed in 2004 after Cliff Young, a Colac farmer and winner of the inaugural

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Westfield's Ultramarathon in May 1983.

History

After Cliff Young (a potato farmer) won the ultramarathon in 1983, the

City of Colac The City of Colac was a local government area about west-southwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1938 until 1994. Its area was surrounded by the separate and largely rural ...

was inspired to stage a 1000-mile race in Cliff's honour - the 1983 Cliff Young Colac 1000 which started in Melbourne and ended in the Colac Memorial Square. In the following year, the City of Colac announced its decision to stage a six-day race. A 400-meter track was created in the Memorial square and named in his honour. Initially named the 1984 Colac Ultra Marathon, it later became known as the Australian Six Day Race - Colac. Fourteen runners entered the inaugural race including the great Yiannis Kouros and British multiday runner

Eleanor Adams-Robinson Eleanor Robinson (formerly Adams, née Puckrin, 20 November 1947) is a British former ultramarathon runner and two-time winner of the IAU 100km World Championships. She was the first woman to run over 150 miles in a 24-hour endurance race. She ...

. Kouros easily won, covering over 1022 km, setting a new world record and Adams-Robinson also broke 11 world records. The race was renamed in early 2004 in honour of Cliff Young, who died on the 2nd of November 2003. In 2005, at the age of 49, Yiannis Kouros returned to the recently renamed race and again demonstrated his unparalleled capacity by setting a new Six Day World Record by covering just over 1036 km, breaking the course record and set new world record times for covering 500 km and 1000 km in his age group. The event has not been held since 2005, despite an effort from Australian marathon runner

Lee Troop Lee Joseph Troop (born 22 March 1973) is an Olympic marathon runner from Geelong, Victoria, Australia. He started out as a long-distance track runner and he represented Australia in the 5000 m at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and attended hi ...

to revive the race in 2008.

References

{{reflist
Coolrunning.com.au
Yiannis Kouros - A legend in the making - by Andy Milroy
Coolrunning.com.au
1983-1991 Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Experiences by Kevin Cassidy
Ultrarunning.com
- Ultrarunning magazine
Multidayrunning.com
- Multiday Running magazine

Other 6 Day races

6jours-antibes.com
- Antibes (FRA)

- Erkrath GER)
SriChinmoyRaces.org
- Self-Transcendence (USA)

- Toyota (RSA)
Australian 6 Day Race
- (Australia, South Australia) Multiday races Sports competitions in Victoria (Australia) Colac, Victoria 1984 establishments in Australia Recurring sporting events established in 1984 2005 disestablishments in Australia Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2005