Words by Laura Markwardt. Photography by On.

“Special request,” says Craig Mottram, halfway through our call.  “I've just gotta catch this one, give me two minutes.” As coach to the On Athletics Club (OAC) Oceania, Mottram never misses a race. 

Mottram sits in Melbourne, Australia, the home and training base of the team. About 853 km (530 miles) down the highway, in Bankstown, Sydney, some of the country’s brightest middle-distance runners gather at the NSW Milers meet to race for the 1500m Olympic standard. The qualifying time for men (3:33:50) is within grasp, and all eyes are on the clock. 

“A few of our athletes are doing it and one’s gone up to have a go,” he says, referring to OAC Oceania athlete and former UNC all American, Jesse Hunt. 

Mottram holds a flashing phone to his screen, his eyes dashing between mobile and laptop, “I’ve got it right here for the live stream.” Hunt gets in lane. 

It’s 10.39am in London, 9.39pm in Melbourne, and as the gun fires, it’s showtime in Sydney. 

Mottram gets loud. “Three up front!” The athletes chase each other down with 100m to go. “An absolute blinder of a run!” 

Jesse Hunt takes a close second place. He joins the 3:33 club in a race packed with new 1500m personal bests. The field is deep, and 11 athletes go under 3:39. 

“Jesse got second – 3:33 or the standard, f*ck! – I reckon he missed the standard by two tenths,” says Mottram. Hunt’s time was 3:33:64.

Mottram double-checks the clock and takes a beat. “It’s fantastic to see Jesse run a PB, but to miss it [the Olympic standard] by that much?” He holds up his thumb and forefinger, barely apart. “That’s the moment I want to be in the warm-down area with him. He’ll be happy – that’s awesome, but he’ll be annoyed because he’s gotta go out and have another go at it.” 

At that very moment, the distance between Melbourne and Sydney feels achingly far. “I’m sorry I can’t be there. But that’s the challenge,” says Mottram. “When you're coaching, it's a 365-days-of-the-year job. With 11 athletes racing in different places, you can’t be everywhere, can you?”

A rhetorical question. We both know there’s only one Craig ‘Buster’ Mottram. And the former Olympian – who took bronze in the 5000m at the 2005 World Championships, silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and two 3000m World Cup golds – has always been in high demand.

Back in 2022, Mottram took on his biggest challenge yet, heading up the OAC Oceania program, to support the next generation of Aussie elite runners to reach their full potential on the world stage. In February 2023, the team officially launched with five athletes, including Olympian, Ben Buckingham, “he’s fantastic, the statesman of the group,” and also teenage track star, “outstanding prospect,” Claudia Hollingsworth, the first athlete to sign to the team when she was just 16-years-old. 

“Our ultimate goal here is to build the world’s best professional running team – and to be part of the athletic ecosystem that the OAC is building across the globe,” says Mottram. 

He worked to set up high-spec training facilities from day one. That base gave athletes something tangible; a way to see, feel – and believe in – the ambitions of OAC Oceania, quite literally, from the ground up. 

“When I took this role, the first thing we did was build the gym, the headquarters that we have here in Richmond, Melbourne,” he says. “With this base, we can have conversations with the right people. They can get an immediate sense of what we’re doing – and the sheer scale of what we're trying to do longer-term.”

Getting the “right people” in the OAC Oceania team is an “exciting challenge.” Tape-breaking resumes aside, Mottram looks for more than just stellar athletic potential, “Yes, you look at how fast they've run, and where they've finished in certain positions. But when you meet people, you get a real feel for their personality and how driven they are. It's a gut feel, based on what they’re going to bring to the team.”

The track velocity of each rising OAC Oceania star tells its own story. Just a few weeks after Hunt’s run [Feb 2023], Hollingsworth and “phenomenal talent,” Bendere Oboya put on electric performances at Canberra Track Classic. They both made the Olympic standard for the 800m [1:58.81, and 1:59.01 respectively]. Hollingsworth even secured third place on the Australian all-time list for the distance.

Split-second gains can be made through hard work, holistic recovery, and that immeasurable alchemy between athlete and coach. Case in point: Jesse Hunt came out of the University of North Carolina, as a 3:37 1500m runner. Since moving to Melbourne, he’s trimmed that time down to 3:33. “Moving to Melbourne, [training] under Craig…has been critical in me being able to take advantage of all the work I’ve been doing over the past five years,” Hunt tells hosts of the Inside Running podcast. “I’m trusting in Craig; his experience and ability.” 

Hunt also attributes his improved form to altitude training with OAC Oceania at Falls Creek in Northeast Victoria [1,600m above sea level]. Mottram calls Falls Creek, “one of my favorite places to train in the world.”

L-R Maudie Skyring, Ben Buckingham, Claudia Hollingsworth, Craig Mottram, Tess Kirsopp-Cole

Other OAC Oceania athletes benefiting from a landscape conducive to high volume and fast times include 3000m SC Olympian, Ed Trippas, “one of the best Steeplers in this country,” 5000m runner, Zach Facioni, middle distance runner, Maudie Skyring, Imogen Barrett, Tess Kirsopp-Cole and hot new signing, Peyton Craig – who in January 2024 smashed the Australian U20 800m record.

“Peyton’s a similar age to Claudia, and like her, he’s a super talent,” says Mottram. He compares their combined strength across a deep middle-distance field to a “two-headed monster.” To have them as part of OAC Oceania, “in the years leading up to athletic seasons in 2028, and of course, 2024 – it’s just really exciting.”

Mottram’s belief in world-domination for OAC Oceania is infectious. And it’s born of an intuition informed by decades of experience, training and racing alongside the best of the best. 

Over in the U.S, OAC Global trains under the guidance of three-time Olympian, Coach Dathan Ritzenhein and Assistant Coach, Kelsey Quinn. The Colorado-based team is an influential blueprint for what talent, individually tailored athletic training plans – and belief – can achieve.

As elite athletes at the peak of their careers, Ritzenhein and Mottram were once competitors. Ritzenhein has described Mottram as “a mentally tough runner and…a formidable opponent.” Today, as OAC Coaches, they’re contemporaries.

“Dathan and I have had some great races and competitions,” says Mottram. He’s done a phenomenal job setting up the U.S.-based OAC team. There's a great deal of respect for each other from our professional running days, but even more so now. He’s been really supportive of what we’re doing here.”

As a one-time “formidable opponent,” how do the stories of Mottram’s own career inform his trackside style today? “I'm a big believer that, in training, you get out what you put in. If you're prepared to work, you'll get good results. But there's no politeness or deference in racing. Absolutely not.” says Mottram. “You’ve got to get in there and have a crack.” 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mottram’s formative years were defined by a rebellious, innate confidence in his own ability, “I always had that inner belief that if I wanted to run, I could do it. If school wasn't going well, I'd say to my parents. ‘Don't worry about it. I'm going to the Olympics anyway,’ and they'd roll their eyes at me,” he laughs. 

Above all, Mottram makes clear that while running is a verb, racing is an art form. He’s not there to get lost in the process. He’s there to analyze the craft. “If you just focus on running, you quickly lose the art of racing,” he explains. 

“It’s about knowing how to place yourself well and strategically run at the right time, getting yourself into the right position at the end. It’s an art form, and you can only master it through repetition and experience. Super shoes, pacing lights, sport science data; they can help, but they’re not the art.

“It comes through experience, relaxation, concentration and confidence,” continues Mottram. “You don’t panic, you wait for the right opportunity. The calm athletes who understand how to do that, are the ones that get me excited. I trust they’re going to deliver their best result, regardless.”

Mottram is invested in every result at every level, “I live it as much as the athletes do,” he says. “When the team performs, I get just as nervous, and I have to do it 11 times in one meet. They've only got to do it once,” he laughs. “They've actually got an easy job!”

Each one of those track meets is a practice of Mottram’s “art” on journeys that will take OAC Oceania closer to big outdoor seasons in 2024, 2028, and ultimately, at Brisbane in 2032, “This team’s gotta outlive me,” he says.

An insight set to take OAC Oceania to the next level; “Respect the race,” says Mottram. “It always comes back to the race.” Mottram lives for the race. And he’s there for every single one.