Letter From Australia: Australian runner Craig Mottram's ninth in the mile event at the Bislett Games in Oslo on Friday night appears a disappointing result. But then appearances can be misleading.

Mottram is a better runner over 5,000 metres than 1,500 metres or a mile.

Besides which, according to Australian athletics writers, he was entitled to be tired in Oslo after running one of the races of his life the previous week to win the two-mile event at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. His time in Oregon of eight minutes 3.50 seconds was the fastest recorded on American soil for the rarely run distance and broke his own Australian record by eight seconds.

Mottram has a chance to atone for his failure in Oslo when he runs in the 5,000 metres at Ostrava, Czech Republic, on June 27th. His ultimate goal is to improve on the bronze medal he won in the 5,000 metres at the 2005 world championships in Helsinki and win the event in this year's world championships in Osaka in August.

Mottram is a curious beast among distance runners because of his height.

Pictures of the rosy-cheeked Australian, who stands 188 centimetres, loping around the track amid a sea of pint-sized Africans are among the favourite images in Australian sport.

It's become so rare to see a white man challenge the Africans in the distance events that Mottram has become a figure of intrigue, even delight. The Africans' obvious respect and affection for him add to the intrigue.

Mottram is well-liked in athletics circles because of his affability. He grew up in Geelong, a provincial city of 200,000 just south of Melbourne, and only began dedicating himself to running after a controversial coach, Nic Bideau, the partner of Cobh's Sonia O'Sullivan, spotted his talent while Mottram was competing in a triathlon in his home town.

Bideau more or less ordered Mottram to get off the bike, stay out of the water and stick to the track. Bideau's judgement has been vindicated by the improvement of Mottram, who at the age of 26 is entering what should be his peak years as a distance runner.

If Mottram were to win gold in Osaka, he would reprise an era of Australian distance running that many believed would never return. In the 1950s and 1960s, when athletics was still largely confined to Western countries and African runners were only just beginning to make their mark, Australian runners were among the world's best.

In 1954, John Landy was favoured to become the first runner to break the four- minute barrier for the mile, only to be pipped by Roger Bannister. In 1960, Herb Elliott won the 1,500 metres at the Rome Olympics by the length of the straight at the Curragh. Throughout the 1960s, Ron Clarke held world records in all distance events, only to fall short of achieving his most cherished goal: victory in the 5,000 metres or 10,000 at an Olympic Games.

Since then, with the notable exception of Robert De Castella, who for a period in the early 1980s was the best marathon runner in the world, Australian distance runners have languished. Through Mottram, hopes for Australian runners have risen and general interest has been revived.

Mottram had every Australian sports fan in his thrall during the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, where he revealed a hitherto unrecognised talent for drama by just failing to outstay Kenya's Augustine Choge in a pulsating 5,000-metre finals.

Then he started the top fancy in the 1500-metre final, only to be skittled over early in the race. The crowd of 95,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground gasped.

In the aftermath, Mottram accepted his misfortune with grace and, in doing so, won many hearts.

Australia and Ireland share a considerable legacy in distance running. At the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, when the Melbourne Cricket Ground crowd was willing on its hometown favourite John Landy in the 1,500 metres final, the Arklow native Ron Delany stormed through to win the gold medal, leaving Landy to earn bronze.

Two years later, on August 6th, 1958, Delany and a handful of Antipodeans ran in what many regard as the greatest race in the history of the sport.

The race was a mile event at Dublin's Santry stadium. Just four years after Bannister had achieved the apparently impossible by breaking four minutes, Herb Elliott ran 3:54.5 to break the world record by a massive 2.7 seconds and no fewer than four others finished inside four minutes. They were the Australian Merv Lincoln, followed by Delany, the New Zealander Murray Halberg and another Australian, Albert Thomas.

Delany said afterwards of Elliott, who was then only 20: "I don't know how you could beat the guy unless you tied his legs."

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Santry classic. Craig Mottram would make many of his compatriots proud, and prick interest around the world, if he could run in a race to mark the anniversary of that famous occasion on Dublin's northside.