Shaun Creighton 'unplugged'

Steve Moneghetti/Shaun Quilty/Pat Carroll/Shaun Creighton
 1999 Seville World Athletics Championships

The great Ron Clarke held the Australian 3000m/5000m and 10,000m records for decades. Ron’s records still stood when I was competing (80's/90's) and there was constant expectation placed on myself and my peers to take Australian distance running forward and break Ron’s records.

I came within a few 10th's of a sec of breaking Ron's 3000m record however that was as close as I ever managed. Andrew Lloyd eventually broke the 3000m record and Lee Troop was successful in setting a new Australian 5000m record.  

Ron will always be remembered as one of Australia’s greatest and a man well ahead of his time. Unfortunately, or fortunately (whichever way you look at it) all of Ron’s Australian records have now been broken. 

Before Troopy came along, Shaun Creighton came agonisingly close to breaking Ron’s 5000m record, missing out by 1 sec. Shaun was successful though in breaking Ron’s 10,000m record of 27.39 with a time of 27.31 in the 1996 Zatopek meet. No Australian has come close to breaking Shaun’s current Australian record since. 

Shaun also sill holds the Australian 3k steeple chase record at 8.16. 

Shaun in not only one of Australia’s greatest ever distance runners (please refer below) but he is also an entertainer. Shaun is famous for telling the ‘rabbit joke’ and I am unable to give the joke justice by sharing it with you now, it needs to be ‘heard’ to be believed. 

Shaun is a great mate and we trained together for years. During this time we spilt buckets of sweat and also  laughed a great deal.

I recently met up with Shaun for a 90min run and we sat down for a chat after. Shaun re-lived his Australian 10,000m record as well as a few of the boyish antics we were both famous for.

I hope you enjoy the interview.   

Cheers

Pat

                  click here for full interview

(the file takes less than 2 minutes to download using cable and the interview runs for 42min)

  
Shaun in action at the
 2000 Sydney Olympics  

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS:
10 titles
5000 metres: '95/'96/'98 - 1st
10000 metres: '95 - 1st, '02 - 1st
3000m Steeple: '87 (U20) - 3rd, '91/'92/'93/'94 - 1st
Road Championship: '90 - 2nd
Cross Country: '92 - 2nd
Marathon: '99 - 1st

INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:
23 Teams
Commonwealth Games: '90 - 3000m Steeple 5th, '94 - 11th, '98 - 5000m - heat, '02 - Marathon - 9th
Olympic Games: '96 - 5000m semi, 10000m - heat, '00 - 10000m - heat
World Championships: '91 - 3000m Steeple - heat, '93 - 9th, '95 - heat, '99 - Marathon DNF
World Cross Country: '90 - 117th, '91 - 143rd, '92 - 58th, '93 - 70th, '94 - DNF, '95 - 25th, '96 - 49th, '97 - 55th, '98 - 22nd
World Cup: '92 - 3000m Steeple 3rd, '98 - 5000m - 2nd
World Indoors: '95 - 3000m - 7th
World Uni Games: '91 - 3000m Steeple - 1st
World Half-Marathon: '00 - 43rd

Marathon Career (7 races):
13/1/97 2nd Houston 2:21.33, 28/9/97 1st Berlin 2:10.22, 17/1/99 4th Houston 2:15.30, 11/7/99 4th Gold Coast 2:16.01, 28/8/99 dnf World Championships (Seville), 8/4/01 17th Paris 2:17.25, 7/10/01 8th Chicago 2:11.54

PROGRESSION:

EVENTS / PBS:

RECORD(S):
Australian Record (2) 3000m Steeple 8:20.37 17/12/92, 8:16.22 2/7/93
Australian Record (3) 3000m 7:43.99 6/7/94, 7:42.02 12/7/95, 7:41.60 21/7/95
Australian Record (1) 10,000m 27:31.92 30/11/96

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e: pat@patcarroll.com.au