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From Little Aths to national champ

Posted on October 14, 2009, 7:07pm and updated on October 15, 2009 at 6:55 pm

Dale Engler
A former Mount Gambier Little Aths participant, Dale Engler, has been crowned Australia’s marathon champion after a stunning debut race in Melbourne on Sunday.

Engler was the first Australian across the line and third overall in the 42.195km Melbourne Marathon, with a time of two hours, 24 minutes and 42 seconds.

The race incorporated the Australian Marathon Championship and featured 23,000 competitors across various categories.

It was Engler’s first full-distance marathon.

He made his half-marathon debut six weeks ago in Adelaide and followed up with a 13th placing in the City-Bay Fun Run over 12km.

He passed through half way of the Melbourne Marathon in just over 70 minutes — faster than his debut half marathon in August.

Engler attended St Martin’s Lutheran Primary School and Tenison Woods College. He played cricket and football for North Gambier.

“I always enjoyed school sports days, but didn’t start doing athletics seriously until I was 16 and joined Little Aths,” he said.

“I tried a bit of everything. I was more interested in the jumping events at that stage.”

Engler told The Border Watch he was still coming to terms with his unexpected victory.

“I was very much in shock at the time and I’m still coming to grips with it,” he said.

Asked about his future goals, he said he was still not 100 percent sure at the moment, but wouldn’t rule out a tilt at the Commonwealth Games.

“I definitely want to continue doing marathons,” he said.

“I’ll maybe do one or more a year from here on.

“I’d need to shave a bit more time off to qualify (for the Commonwealth Games), but I’ll never say never to that.

“Right now I just want to have a good summer, run a few shorter races and set myself for the Melbourne Marathon again next year.”

Athletics Australia says the Commonwealth Games qualifying time is 2:14 and must be achieved by May 3, 2010.

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