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30-426: The five-day event, which ranged in distance from 864 kilometres (537 miles) to 1,060 kilometres (660 miles), was regarded as one of the toughest in the world. It was particularly notable for having been won in 1983 by Cliff Young , an almost unknown 61-year-old potato farmer from Beech Forest, Victoria . Yiannis Kouros won the men's race five times. In 1988, the race organiser challenged him to start 12 hours behind

60-619: A halogenated polymer . They are usually worn when walking on wet or muddy ground, or to protect the wearer from heavy showers and puddles . They are generally just below knee-high although shorter boots are available. Before its entry into the mobile phone business, rubber boots were among the best-known products of Nokia . Both the Finnish Defence Forces and the Swedish Armed Forces issue rubber boots to all soldiers for use in wet conditions and during

90-684: A child, Young was forced to round up the stock on foot, as the family were very poor during the depression and could not afford horses . In 1979, at the age of 56, he competed in the Adidas Sun Superun 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) race which crossed the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne . He ran the race at a very respectable 64 minutes and was interviewed by the media. Cliff then ran the Melbourne Marathon with

120-595: A range of agricultural and outdoors pursuits. The term Wellington boot comes from Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , who instructed his shoemaker to create the boot by modifying the design of the Hessian boot . The terms gumboot and rubber boot are both derived from the rubber modern Wellington boots are made from, with the term "gum" coming from gum rubber . The terms Wellington boot and gumboot are most commonly used in British English , with

150-450: A slow and loping pace and trailed the pack by a large margin at the end of the first day. While the other competitors stopped to sleep for six hours, Young kept running. He ran continuously for five days, taking the lead during the first night and eventually winning by 10 hours. Before running the race, he had told the press that he had previously run for two to three days straight rounding up sheep in gumboots . He said afterwards that during

180-525: A time of 3:21:41 in 1979. He would go on to compete in 1980, 1981, and 1982, setting a personal best of 3:02:53 in 1980, aged 58. In late 1982, after training for months around the Otway Ranges , Young attempted to break New Zealander Siegfried "Ziggy" Bauer's then world record for 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of 11 days and 23 hours. The attempt took place in Colac 's Memorial Square. Young had to abandon

210-497: A type of leather boot adapted from Hessian boots , a style of military riding boot, Wellington boots were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington . They became a staple of practical foot wear for the British aristocracy and middle class in the early 19th century. The name was subsequently given to waterproof rubber boots and they are no longer associated with a particular class. They are now commonly used for

240-638: A world age record in a six-day race in Victoria. Young was a vegetarian from 1973 until his death. He lived at the family home with his mother and brother Sid. Cliff had never married, but after the 1983 race, at 62 years of age, he married 23-year-old Mary Howell. The race sponsor, Westfield , hosted the wedding for the entertainment of shoppers. Young and Howell divorced five years later. Renowned for his ungainly running style, Young ran more than 20,000 kilometres during his competitive career. After five years of illness and several strokes, he died of cancer at

270-526: The British Army 's demands. In World War II , Hunter Boot was again requested to supply vast quantities of Wellington and thigh boots. 80% of production was of war materials, from (rubber) ground sheets to life belts and gas masks. In the Netherlands , the British forces were working in flooded conditions which demanded Wellingtons and thigh boots in vast supplies. By the end of the war in 1945,

300-595: The Cliff Young Australian Six-Day Race was established that same year. In 1984, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia "for long distance running". In 1997, at age 75, he made an attempt to beat Ron Grant 's around-Australia record. He completed 6,520 kilometres of the 16,000-kilometre run, but had to pull out because his only crew member became ill. In 2000, Young achieved

330-745: The Gladstone Bag , the classic doctor's portmanteau . Production of the Wellington boot was dramatically boosted with the advent of World War I and a requirement for footwear suitable for the conditions in Europe's flooded and muddy trenches . The North British Rubber Company (now Hunter Boot Ltd ) was asked by the War Office to construct a boot suitable for such conditions. The mills ran day and night to produce immense quantities of these trench boots. In total, 1,185,036 pairs were made to meet

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360-712: The Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission published its Report on the Supply of Certain Rubber Footwear , which covered rubber boots of all kinds including wellingtons and overboots. This 107-page official publication addressed contemporary concerns about unfair pricing of rubber footwear manufactured in the UK or imported from overseas. The appendices include lists of rubber footwear manufacturers and price-lists of each company's range of wellington boots available in

390-497: The steel toe or steel-capped Wellington: a protective (commonly internal) toe-capping to protect the foot from crush and puncture injuries. Although traditionally made of steel, the reinforcement may be a composite or a plastic material such as thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Such steel-toe Wellingtons are nearly indispensable in an enormous range of industry and are often mandatory wear to meet local occupational health and safety legislation or insurance requirements. In July 1956,

420-703: The sulfur vulcanisation process for natural rubber. Hutchinson bought the patent to manufacture footwear and moved to France to establish À l'Aigle ("At the Eagle") in 1853, to honour his home country. Today the company is simply called Aigle . In a country where 95% of the population were working on fields with wooden clogs as they had been for generations, the introduction of the wholly waterproof, Wellington-type rubber boot became an instant success: farmers would be able to come back home with clean, dry feet. Wellington boots in contemporary usage are waterproof and are most often made from rubber or polyvinyl chloride (PVC),

450-463: The 1815 portrait by James Lonsdale, the Duke can be seen wearing the more formal Hessian style boots, which are tasselled . Wellington's utilitarian new boots quickly caught on with patriotic British gentlemen eager to emulate their war hero. Considered fashionable and foppish in the best circles and worn by dandies , such as Beau Brummell , they remained the main fashion for men through the 1840s. In

480-448: The 1850s they were more commonly made in the calf-high version, and in the 1860s they were both superseded by the ankle boot, except for riding. Wellington is one of the two British Prime Ministers to have given his name to an item of clothing, the other being Sir Anthony Eden (see Anthony Eden hat ) whilst Sir Winston Churchill gave his name to a cigar , and William Gladstone (four times prime minister between 1868 and 1894) gave his to

510-549: The 18th-century Hessian boot . The resulting new boot was fabricated in soft calfskin leather, had the trim removed and was cut to fit more closely around the leg. The heels were low cut, stacked around an inch (2.5 centimetres), and the boot stopped at mid-calf. It was suitably hard-wearing for riding, yet smart enough for informal evening wear. The boot was dubbed the Wellington and the name has stuck in English ever since. In

540-524: The Wellington had become popular among men, women and children for wet weather wear. The boot had developed to become far roomier with a thick sole and rounded toe. Also, with the rationing of that time, labourers began to use them for daily work. The lower cost and ease of rubber "Wellington" boot manufacture, and being entirely waterproof, lent itself immediately to being the preferred protective material to leather in all forms of industry. Increased attention to occupational health and safety requirements led to

570-673: The age of 81 on 2 November 2003 at his home in Queensland. A memorial in the shape of a gumboot in Beech Forest is dedicated to Young and the Cliff Young Drive and Cliff Young Park there are named after him. The "Young Shuffle" has been adopted by some ultramarathon runners because it expends less energy. At least three winners of the Sydney-to-Melbourne race were known to use the "Young Shuffle" to win

600-517: The mid-1950s. Green Wellington boots, introduced by Hunter Boot Ltd in 1955, gradually became a shorthand for "country life" in the UK. In 1980, sales of their boots skyrocketed after Lady Diana Spencer (future Princess Diana ) was pictured wearing a pair on the Balmoral estate during her courtship with Prince Charles. Wellington boots were at first made of leather. However, in 1852 Hiram Hutchinson met Charles Goodyear , who had just invented

630-479: The race he imagined he was running after sheep trying to outrun a storm. The Westfield run took him five days, fifteen hours and four minutes, almost two days faster than the previous record for any run between Sydney and Melbourne, at an average speed of 6.5 kilometres per hour (4.0 mph). All six competitors who finished the race broke the old record. Upon being awarded the prize of A$ 10,000 (equivalent to $ 36,011 in 2022), Young said that he did not know there

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660-531: The race was ceased. 6 finishers 9 finishers Men's race Women's race 11 finishers Men's race Women's race 9 finishers Men's race Women's race 16 finishers Men's race Women's race 23 finishers 19 finishers Men's race Women's race 20 finishers 11 finishers This article about marathons or long-distance running is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cliff Young (athlete) Albert Ernest Clifford Young OAM (8 February 1922  – 2 November 2003 )

690-494: The race. In 2010, comedian Hannah Gadsby named their Sydney Comedy Festival show "The Cliff Young Shuffle" in tribute. In May 2013, ABC1 broadcast Cliffy , a telemovie about Young's victorious 1983 run. The telemovie starred Kevin Harrington as Young, with his race support team played by Roy Billing as his coach Wally, and Joshua Hine as Paul. Krew Boylan featured as Mary Howell. Young's mother and sister Eunice

720-462: The rest of the field. Kouros overtook his competitors and won the race with a one-hour lead over New Zealander Dick Tout. The first woman to compete was Australian Caroline Vaughan who ran in 1984. Vaughan did not finish the race. In 1985, three women competed and finished: British ultramarathon runner Eleanor Robinson (then Eleanor Adams), Donna Hudson of the US and Australian Margaret Smith. Robinson won

750-534: The term being occasionally used in American English . Instead, the terms rubber boot and rain boot are more commonly used in American English. Further, in American English, the term Wellington boot is sometimes used to specifically refer to Wellington boots with a more fashionable design. The Duke of Wellington instructed his shoemaker, Hoby of St. James's Street, London, to modify

780-408: The women's race three times. The final running of the event in 1991 included prize money ($ 60,000 for first place), a handicapping system and a change to the course. Yiannis Kouros did not enter the race as he demanded a large fee to appear, and claimed to plan a competing race with the same course. Due to this, the 1991 edition was a commercial failure, and after Westfield Group withdrew their support

810-745: The world record attempt just after halfway at 805 kilometres (500 mi). Reflecting on the failed attempt, Young wrote that he and his support team were inexperienced and ill-prepared. In 1983, now aged 61 years old, Young won the inaugural Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon , a distance of 875 kilometres (544 mi). The race was run between what were then Australia's two largest Westfield shopping centres: Westfield Parramatta in Sydney and Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne. Young arrived to compete in overalls and work boots, without his dentures (later saying that they rattled when he ran). He ran at

840-406: Was a prize and that he felt bad accepting it, as each of the other five runners who finished had worked as hard as he did—so he split the money equally between them, keeping none. Despite attempting the event again in later years, Young was unable to repeat this performance or claim victory again. Young became very popular after this " tortoise and hare " feat, so much so that in Colac, Victoria ,

870-464: Was an Australian athlete from Beech Forest, Victoria . A farmer, he became notable for his unexpected win of the inaugural Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon in 1983 at 61 years of age. Young was born the eldest son and the third of seven of Mary and Albert Ernest Young on 8 February 1922, he grew up on a farm in Beech Forest in southwestern Victoria. The family farm was approximately 2,000 acres (810 ha) with approximately 2,000 sheep . As

900-435: Was played by former A Country Practice stars Joan Sydney and Anne Tenney . Young appeared briefly as himself in an episode (No. 479) of the television drama Prisoner: Cell Block H . Gumboot This is an accepted version of this page A Wellington boot , often shortened to welly , and also known as a gumboot , rubber boot , or rain boot , is a type of waterproof boot made of rubber . Originally

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