Craig Mottram

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Medal record
Men’s athletics
World Championships
Bronze	2005 Helsinki	5000 m
Commonwealth Games
Silver	2006 Melbourne	5000 m

Craig Mottram is an Australian long distance and middle distance runner.

Born on 18 June 1980 in Frankston, Victoria, Mottram specialises in the 5000 metres event. He attended the prestigious Geelong Grammar School. It is there that he found his niche in running and was captain of the school team in his year.

On August 14, 2005, Mottram reached a career highlight, coming third in the 5000 metres event at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, running the event in 13 minutes, 32.96 seconds. He was the first non-African to receive a medal in that event since 1987.

On March 9, 2006 in Melbourne, in his final warmup event before the Commonwealth Games, Mottram took ten seconds off the 12-year-old Australian record for the 2000 metres. This distance, not often run at IAAF events, was scheduled specifically to suit Mottram's Games preparation.

On March 20, 2006 at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Mottram came second in the 5000 metres event with a time of 12 minutes, 58.19 seconds, beaten narrowly by Kenyan runner Augustine Choge.^[1] This race was only the second time that this event was won in under 13 minutes at a championship competition (first one being 2003 World Athletics Championships.)^[2] Mottram also ran in the 1500 metre event in Melbourne on 25 March 2006, entering the competition as favourite to win. Having worked his way into third position during the race, Mottram was accidentally tripped at the 800 metre mark when English athlete Andrew Baddeley fell behind him, clipping Mottram's heel. Mottram lost 20 metres on the field due to the incident and finished in ninth position, to his and his supporters' obvious disappointment.^[3]. In 2007 Craig started the year on a high, dominating "the Kenyan Hope" of Boniface Songkok at the Telstra A series in Melbourne. The race was a conservative one before Craig tore the field open with a quick 7th lap before a devastating final 400 m run in 53 seconds. At the Prefontaine Classic In Eugene (Oregon), Craig ran the 5th fastest 2-mile of all time in 8:03.50 leaving in his wake the likes Alan Webb, Tariku Bekele, Matt Tegenkemp, Dathan Ritzenhein and other American hopefuls. After a good start to the season Craig suffered a Hamstring Strain which was to play havoc on his preparation of the World Championships. Craig gallantly ran on confidence to get through to the final where his interrupted preparation became apparent finishing in a disappointing 11th.