{"id":3467,"date":"2012-01-30T12:15:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T01:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s139637.gridserver.com\/?page_id=3467"},"modified":"2012-02-02T12:05:04","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T01:05:04","slug":"h-j-downes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stawellgift.com\/wp\/hall-of-fame\/hall-of-fame-inductees\/h-j-downes\/","title":{"rendered":"H.J. Downes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Born at Hamilton in 1939, Harry Downes was keenly interested in athletics from an early age, broke all school records from 75 yards to a mile.<\/p>\n

He impressed Frank Banner a former sprint champion, who advised him to become a professional. Downes quickly made a name for himself in Mile events.<\/p>\n

In 1963 at Bendigo, aged 23 years, he became the first professional athlete in the world to break the magical four-minute mile barrier. Downes’ time of 3.59.7 seconds set on March 10′ 1963 was still standing as the world professional record more than 20 years later.<\/p>\n

At Stawell in 1965, Downes won the Herb Hedemann Invitation Mile from scratch. His impressive wins at Stawell between 1959 and 1969 included seven first placings from ten events, a second, a third and a fourth.<\/p>\n

Nearing the end of his career, Downes won the Mile championship at Northcote in 1969 – thus ended the career of Australia’s most brilliant miler, a man who ran better because of his fear of losing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

\n
Gift favourite has handicap appeal denied as Kim Collins immerses in gift history<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born at Hamilton in 1939, Harry Downes was keenly interested in athletics from an early age, broke all school records from 75 yards to a mile. He impressed Frank Banner a former sprint champion, who advised him to become a professional. Downes quickly made a name for himself in Mile<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":3077,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-3467","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nH.J. Downes - Powercor Stawell Gift<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Australia\u2019s richest footrace, the Stawell Gift, returns to Central Park on Saturday 31 March to Monday 2 April 2018 over the Easter long weekend with three action-packed days of elite athletic racing, activities and family entertainment. 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