Sprinter Miffed At Mottram Award

Members Area In the News
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I deserve to be our top athlete
Scott Gullan
07jun06

IT’S not quite Jana and Tamsyn, but another spat may be brewing in the athletics world involving Australia’s two highest-profile male athletes.

Commonwealth Games hero John Steffensen was yesterday less than impressed when he was beaten by Craig Mottram for the Male Athlete of the Year award.
Steffensen didn’t mince words when asked if he was disappointed to have received the Emerging Athlete of the Year award and not the main prize.

“Obviously two gold medals is not enough,” Steffensen said.

“I think if you asked the public who they would remember running on the track, they’d say me.”

While Mottram sent a pre-recorded video message to the Athletics Australia awards luncheon at the Sofitel, Steffensen went out of his way to make an appearance.

He flew from his training base in Los Angeles to Sydney and on to Melbourne yesterday to attend the function.

Steffensen, who calls himself the “people’s champ”, questioned whether Mottram had done as much to promote the sport off the track as he had done in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games.

“Craig is a great athlete,” he said. “But you’ve got to do it off the track as well, work with the kids and the federation to support the sport.”

Steffensen was bemused that he was only now being recognised as an emerging athlete.

“(I’ve been that) for four years, in fact, and now I’m finally being recognised,” Steffensen said.

An independent panel of five judges, comprising former athletes, coaches and administrators, voted on the award.

It was an extremely tough call given the credentials of candidates including Mottram, Steffensen and walker Nathan Deakes.

Mottram had a stellar international season, culminating in a bronze medal in the 5000m at the world titles in Helsinki in August.

He then claimed the silver medal in a memorable 5000m race against Kenyan Augustine Choge at the Commonwealth Games before cruelly tripping when a hot favourite in the 1500m final.

Steffensen improved significantly during the season, making the world titles 400m final in Helsinki before dramatically slashing his personal best during the Australian summer.

He smashed through the 45-second barrier to win gold at the Commonwealth Games and was also a member of the successful 4 x 400m relay team.

AA chief executive Danny Corcoran admitted it had been a tough decision, but Mottram’s international record had swayed the vote.

“Craig Mottram has been able to do it on an international level, even (at) cross-country he has been a very solid performer, so now it is John, the people’s champion, it is his time to really show that he is the star that he believes he is,” Corcoran said.

Long-jumper Bronwyn Thompson was named Female Athlete of the Year, a decision that also raised eyebrows given marathoner Kerryn McCann’s memorable performance at the Commonwealth Games and Jana Pittman’s two gold medals.

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COMMENT ARTICLE
No surprise people’s champ is miffed
Ron Reed
07jun06

FRESH off the plane from Los Angeles, John Steffensen was back in Melbourne yesterday, decked out in a velour suit and a thousand-dollar pair of shoes.

He was looking and sounding like the most flamboyant man in Australian sport, which is what he just about is these days.
But his effervescent mood was dampened considerably when he had to settle for the Best Emerging Athlete at Athletics Australia’s annual awards function.

He figured – and wasn’t afraid to say – that his individual and relay 400m gold medals at the Commonwealth Games should have been enough to bag the Male Athlete of the Year gong.

That went to distance star Craig Mottram on the strength of his bronze medal in the 5000m at the world championships.

Because of the degree of difficulty involved in racing the altitude-trained Africans over such a draining distance, Mottram has rightly been applauded loudly for that feat.

The great Ron Clarke bowed to him as Australia’s greatest distance runner. AA chief executive Danny Corcoran yesterday described it as “a staggering achievement”.

However, there is no denying that Mottram’s star waned at the Commonwealth Games when he finished second over the same distance and then was tripped from behind during the 1500m.

Those two disappointments allowed Steffensen to upstage him, and that theatrical allusion is employed deliberately.

After years on struggle street, track and field was on show at the Games and desperately needed someone to step forward and sell it to the uncommitted punters who filled the MCG grandstands night after night.

Steffensen promised to do that – and did. He became the people’s champion, and walked away with not one but two gold medals to add to his Olympic silver from the 400m relay in Athens.

For sure, he has a long way to go yet before he is an authentic international star – although true to form he guaranteed yesterday that he will win world and Olympic gold – but he was the one who captured the public imagination at a crucial time. He was a winner, Mottram wasn’t.

As much as it might be argued that it would be a triumph for style over substance, he deserved to be rewarded for that yesterday and it is no surprise that he feels miffed that he wasn’t.

That said, Mottram would also have been unhappy to have lost.

Sitting on the fence in such debates is seldom satisfactory, but perhaps this is one time when a tied verdict might have been the best solution.

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Men’s 5000 - 10 000m (3000m - 2 Miles - Cross Country)
5 June 2006 (29 May 2006)

Pl.
(Pl.)
Athlete
Birth
Nat
Score

(1.)
Kenenisa BEKELE
82
ETH
1453

(2.)
Eliud KIPCHOGE
84
KEN
1365

(3.)
Sileshi SIHINE
83
ETH
1364

(6.)
Isaac Kiprono SONGOK
84
KEN
1361

(4.)
Benjamin LIMO
74
KEN
1353

(5.)
Augustine Kiprono CHOGE
87
KEN
1347

(6.)
Boniface KIPROP
85
UGA
1340

(8.)
Craig MOTTRAM
80
AUS
1321

http://www.iaaf.org/asp/worldRankings/content/m5000-10000m.html

Men’s 400m (300m - 500m ind.)
5 June 2006 (29 May 2006)

http://www.iaaf.org/asp/worldRankings/content/m400m.html

Pl.
(Pl.)
Athlete
Birth
Nat
Score

(1.)
Jeremy WARINER
84
USA
1379

(2.)
Christopher BROWN
78
BAH
1346

(3.)
Tim BENJAMIN
82
GBR
1330

(3.)
Brandon SIMPSON
81
JAM
1330

(6.)
Andrew ROCK
82
USA
1322

(5.)
Gary KIKAYA
78
COD
1318

(7.)
Tyler CHRISTOPHER
83
CAN
1315

(8.)
Alleyne FRANCIQUE
76
GRN
1311

(9.)
Tyree WASHINGTON
76
USA
1298

(10.)
Michael BLACKWOOD
76
JAM
1288

(11.)
LaShawn MERRITT
86
USA
1285

(12.)
Darold WILLIAMSON
83
USA
1274

(13.)
Derrick BREW
77
USA
1264

(14.)
Davian CLARKE
76
JAM
1257

(15.)
John STEFFENSEN
82
AUS
1255

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Even more so than Anthony ‘The Man’ Mundine ? :eek:

He then claimed the silver medal in a memorable 5000m race against Kenyan Augustine Choge at the Commonwealth Games before cruelly tripping when a hot favourite in the 1500m final.

One of the favourites yes, hot? :cool:

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Hot only to claim some sort of medal.

I’d have thought Nick Willis - the ultimate winner - to be the hot gold medal favourite, having beaten Mottram only a few weeks earlier over a mile in Kiwiland somewhere.

Plus Willis was fresh coming in for the GWG 1500, whereas Mottram would have been weakened by his 5000m effort. That may even (but probably not) have in some small way contributed to Mottram’s inability to avoid the fall in the 1500m.

Willis has since gone on to perform very well in the US racing over 1500 and mile.

Mottram has 1500m speed (in the way of a capacity to stick in a fast 1km-to-1.5km anywhere in a 5km or 10km race), but others like Willis and some of the Kenyans (notably Oslo 5km winner Isaac Songok and training partner, Melbourne 5km winner Augustine Choge) also have 400m speed, so they can sit on any pace, wait and then turn it on fairly dramatically anywhere they need it in a 5000m but especially on the final lap.

That 400m speed was what distinguished the great British milers of the late-70s-to-mid-80s.

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I recall Ovett saying about one 800m race where they ran the first 400m in 47 something :eek: