Indigenous runners take on Dili marathon

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Joseph Davies

ABC News

Several young Indigenous athletes will compete in tomorrow's Dili marathon in preparation for the New York marathon in November.

The young men are taking part in the Running to America program, coordinated by former marathon champion Robert de Castella.

Joseph Davies, from Kununurra in Western Australia, says he is pleased East Timor's president Jose Ramos-Horta invited the group to compete in Dili this weekend.

"Yeah I reckon it's good. Someone big like him, just to know that he's watching us and know what he's up to I think it's great," he said.

Head coach John Bell says the athletes will run a 10 kilometre track in Dili as a warm up for the 42 kilometre race in New York.

He says the program aims to develop long distance running in the Indigenous community.

"We're trying to reawaken the interest and the ability that's obviously there in the Indigenous community for distance running," he said.

"Bearing in mind that the Olympic games doesn't just have sprints for Cathy Freeman, but it's also got 5,000, 10,000 metres in the marathon for Indigenous distance runners."
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