Lorraine Moller

Lorraine Moller began life as an 800m runner and developed into one of the great distance runners of women’s athletics.

She was born in 1955 in Putaruru and at 18 launched her international career by running in the 800m and 1500m at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games. She did well, too, winning her 800m heat in 2min 05.8s and qualifying for the final by running 2min 4.2s in her semi-final. Moller went faster again in the final, with 2min 3.63s for fifth place. This time remained her lifetime best.

In 1975, she finished 5th at the world cross-country event in Morocco in a fantastic race for New Zealand. Heather Thomson was 6th and Anne Garrett (later Audain) 10th, and the New Zealand team, which also included Allison Deed (later Roe) and Dianne Zorn (later Rodger) came 2nd, just edged out of first place by the USA. The New Zealand men’s team won the world teams title that year in Morocco.

In 1979, Moller was 39th at the world cross-country champs in Ireland. In 1981 she was 26th when the event was held in Spain.

By the time of the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games, Moller had established herself as a big-name road runner in the US. However, she was chosen for the 1500m and 3000m in Brisbane and won a bronze medal in both.

The 3000m, on the second day of track and field, was run as a straight final with 17 starters. In Moller, Anne Audain and Dianne Rodger, New Zealand had an impressive trio of runners. Insiders felt Audain, who’d followed Moller and Allison Roe on to the American road circuit, was the favourite. Her lead-up training form in Melbourne was outstanding, and included an unofficial New Zealand record in the 1500m.

Audain dictated the pace, withstood a challenge from England’s Wendy Smith with 200m remaining and sprinted to the line to finish with a sizzling time of 8min 45.53s. Moller fought back over the last two laps to grab the bronze medal in 8min 55.76s and Rodger was fourth. All four women broke the Games record. Moller and Rodger lifted Audain down the straight, acknowledging the cheers.

In the 1500m, Moller was second in her heat in 4min 17min 45s and 3rd in the final in 4min 12.67s. Chris Boxer of England won in 4min 08.28s.

Despite her two medals in Brisbane and her New Zealand 1500m record run of 4min 10.35s in Brussels in 1985, Moller was one of the world’s leading marathon runners by 1982. However, there had been no marathon available for women at Brisbane.

Moller ran her first marathon in 1979, winning Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota in 2h 37min 37s. This was the New Zealand record and the sixth-fastest ever run by a woman. Moller then won her next seven marathons, an astoundingly consistent achievement over such a challenging distance.

She was a triple winner of the Osaka Ladies Marathon and in 1984 won the Boston Marathon. Besides her marathon successes, she also prospered on the lucrative US road racing circuit.

At the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, Moller picked up the silver medal in the marathon, running 2h 28min 17s, her lifetime best, behind Australian Lisa Martin’s 2h 26min 07s. She also competed in the 3000m in Edinburgh, finishing 5th in 9min 03.39s.

At her first Olympics, in Los Angeles in 1984, Moller ran well to finish 5th in the marathon, being timed at 2h 28min 34s. In front of her was a who’s who of women’s marathon running – Joan Benoit, Greta Waitz, Rosa Mota and Ingrid Kristiansen. It was the first time women ran the marathon at the Olympics and the stars rose to the occasion.

Moller returned for the marathon at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and didn’t have such a happy time of it, finishing 33rd in 2h 37min 52s. By then she was 33 and there were suggestions her career was winding down.

She kept running though and gained selection – criticised in some quarters – for the marathon at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. It was a tremendously hot day and the marathon ended with a demanding run up Montjuic Hill.

There were emotional scenes in the stadium that day. Valentina Yegorova won the gold and Yuko Arimori the silver, and both were lauded for their bravery and fighting ability. But when the tall figure of Moller entered the stadium in third, absolutely drenched in sweat, the cheering got louder. In the stands, John Walker, commentating for television, had tears running down his cheeks. Walker, more than most, appreciated the courage Moller had needed to even get to the Olympics at 37, and then to overcome such a taxing course. Moller’s time was 2h 33min 59s. On that day, in those circumstances, the time was the equivalent of seven or eight minutes quicker in normal conditions.

Unbelievably, Moller hung on the gain selection for a fourth Olympics, at Atlanta in 1996, but this time she could manage only 46th in 2h 42min 21s. There were 86 starters so even at 41, Moller more than held her own. She was the only woman to run in the first four Olympic marathons, even more remarkable considering she didn’t attend her first Olympics until she was 29.

Moller had two relatively unsuccessful attempts at the world track and field championships. In Helsinki in 1983, she finished 14th in the final of the 3000m in 9min 02.19s, having run 8min 51.91s in her heat. And in Rome in 1987, she struggled in 21st in the 10,000m in 34min 07.26s.

Moller won New Zealand road racing titles in 1974, 75 and 79 and the New Zealand cross-country title in 1976.

She was married to fellow Olympian Ron Daws and her long-time coach was New Zealander John Davies.

Moller was always a free spirit. Alongside Audain and Allison Roe, she led a new generation of New Zealand women runners and openly pushed for professionalism to replace the ‘shamateur’ system in which athletes were paid under the counter. The trio’s joint announcement that they would accept prizemoney at the 1981 Cascade Run Off in Oregon was a key moment in pushing athletics into the era of open competition. It was a bold and brave stand when no-one knew what the repercussions would be. Indeed they were all banned by the Athletics New Zealand for a time, until the situation became farcical and the officials relented.

In 2007, Moller wrote On the Wings of Mercury, her autobiography. The colourful and off-beat book was widely acclaimed.

In 1993, Moller was awarded an MBE and she was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.