Mottram geared up for Dublin race

Australia’s top distance runner Craig Mottram insists he will be treating this weekend’s Great BUPA Ireland Run as aggressively as he did the recent World Cross-Country Championships.

Less than a fortnight ago in Brussels, Mottram was the top non-African finisher in both the long and short course races which earned the Aussie plenty of praise.

Mottram, 23, said: “Lots of people asked me that after the race, but it doesn’t mean that much to me.

“My aim is to be competitive in any contest and it wasn’t a case of trying to win something that many called a race within a race.”

Mottram is adamant he was equally as focused as his training partner Benita Johnson, who stunned her African rivals by winning Australia’s first-ever world cross-country gold.

The reigning World Cup 3,000m champion said: “I wanted to go out there and get a medal and that’s what Benita and my attitudes were.

“Hers paid off handsomely and she won the damn thing and I finished ninth and 13th which looking back was a great result.

“Believe me, I take that same attitude into any race. I’m in it to win it. That’s the only way you can be in the sport if you are going to be successful.

“If you are going to be a winner you have to be aggressive. I like to think I was in Brussels and certainly that’s what I’m going to carry on doing.”

John Mayock, who will lead the British challenge over 10km in Phoenix Park, certainly can expect the same black-and-white approach from Mottram on Saturday morning.

The Yorkshireman, runner-up behind the former Australian junior triathlon champion in last year’s clash, is now trying to mix a full-time career as a sports administrator with preparing for the Olympic Games.

Mottram expects to have the upper hand on his English rival, saying: “He’s going alright, although I don’t know specifically what his preparations have been.

“But I’ll be trying to drop him in the first two kilometres this time. Certainly I intend getting rid of him before three kilometres.”

Mottram, who will travel to the United States on Sunday for a month’s altitude training with Sonia O’Sullivan, added: “Basically Sonia and I have been doing a lot of running and getting in plenty of miles.

“There’s been no specific work on the track,” said Mottram already eyeing an Olympic 5,000m medal.

“I’ve just been looking forward to coming over here and taking back the title I won last year.”