Robert de Castella

Robert Francois de Castella MBE (born February 27, 1957 in Melbourne, Victoria) was a world champion marathon runner. He is popularly known as "Deek" or "Deeks". His strong marathon performances in 1981-83 made him the favourite for the marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics, at a time when Australia had few prospects for Olympic gold. de Castella is of Swiss-Italian decent.

de Castella also held the World best time in the marathon from 1981 to 1984. It was not initially known to be a world best time, because his time of 2h 08'18" was 5 seconds more than the time set by Alberto Salazar earlier in 1981 in the New York City Marathon. It later emerged that the New York course was about 148 metres short. "(See the Alberto Salazar article)."

de Castella lost his family home, along with many of his medals and other citations, in the 2003 Canberra bushfires. He was married to runner Gaylene Clews.

He retired from the sport in 1993 and now lives in Canberra. From 1990 to 1995 he was the director of the Australian Institute of Sport, and subsequently became executive director of Focus On You. He is the co-owner of two cafe bakeries, in Pearce, and the Dickson Centre. de Castella has been part of a long-running advertising campaign for the multi-vitamin tablet "Centrum".

Achievements in sports

* 1979 - won the Victorian Championship and the Australian marathon title.
* 1980 - 10th in the 1980 Summer Olympics marathon in Moscow.
* 1981 - won the Fukuoka Marathon in 2h 08'18" (world record from 1981 to 1984)
* 1982 - won the 1982 Commonwealth Games marathon in Brisbane in 2h 09'18"
* 1983 - won the Rotterdam Marathon in 2h 08'37"
* 1983 - won the 1983 World Championships in Athletics marathon in Helsinki in 2h 10'03" (becoming Australia's first world champion in the sport).
* 1984 - 5th in the Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles
* 1984 - 3rd in the Chicago Marathon in 2h 09'09"
* 1985 - 3rd in the Chicago Marathon in 2h 08'48"
* 1986 - won the 1986 Commonwealth Games marathon in Edinburgh in 2h 10'15"
* 1986 - won the Boston marathon in 2h 07'51"
* 1988 - 4th in the Tokyo Marathon in 2h 08'49"
* 1988 - 8th in the 1988 Summer Olympics marathon in Seoul
* 1991 - won the Rotterdam Marathon in 2h 09'42"

Other awards

*1983 - awarded the Australian of the Year

References

* [http://www.athletics.com.au/history/athletes/athlete638.htm Profile]