Darren Clark was so famous during his heyday as a sprinter that people would mob him in the street.
Like today’s running sensation Gout Gout, Clark burst onto the Australian track scene at just 17, earning selection for the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, before competing at his first Olympics in Los Angeles the following year.
That was at the first LA Games in 1984. More than four decades later, Gout Gout is expected to race in the same city in 2028.
With boyish good looks and natural ability, dual Olympic finalist Clark became the sport’s male pin-up throughout his decade-long career in the 1980s and ’90s.
But after his retirement, he fell into substance abuse and a long list of clashes with the law.
Now, after reaching his lowest point, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist has turned a corner with a fresh opportunity to showcase his talent and ability.
In the most iconic photo of his career, Darren Clark tastes success at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, where he won gold in the men’s 400m at the pinnacle of his track talents
Clark lost his way for a while – with a string of driving, drugs and dishonesty offences to prove it – but ‘he’s back’, according to his old coach Mike Hurst, and is helping train his son Zen
And Clark has some advice for Gout Gout – ‘a magnificent and really rare talent’ – on how to avoid the pitfalls he weathered after he stepped away from his brilliant career.
Clark remains regarded as one of the country’s greatest-ever 400m runners – but post-retirement, he went from being a force in world athletics to being unemployed and on a disability pension while clocking up an extensive criminal history.
Most of the offences relate to his shocking driving record dating back to 1988, but also include drug possession, drug driving, stalking, shoplifting and possessing stolen goods.
‘I was lost when I stopped (competing). When the spotlight goes away… I was pretty much in the wilderness,’ Clark revealed exclusively to Daily Mail Australia.
But there was something within Clark that ‘got me out of the dark days’ that could so easily have ended with a premature death.
These days, the former runner, who is about to turn 60, is ‘fit and healthy’ and avoids driving in favour of riding his bicycle. ‘I cycle everywhere,’ he says, ‘and it’s easier on the joints than running. I hate running now.’
For those too young to have followed Clark’s career, it’s worth recapping just what a sporting celebrity he was back in the day.
At the Los Angeles Olympics, in a thrilling 400m final, Darren – aged just 18 – led into the straight but was overtaken by American Alonzo Baber and Ivory Coast’s Gabriel Tiacoh.
Clark is pictured after winning the 400m at the Kodak AAA meeting in Crystal Palace, London, in 1985, a year after the dual Olympian had placed fourth at the LA Olympics, aged just 18
Another American, Antonio McKay, just pipped Clark on the line for bronze, beating the teen by just .04, with Clark running a personal best at the time of 44.75 seconds.
In the men’s 400m relay, Clark ran the second leg in an astonishing 43.86 to put Australia in first place at the halfway mark, but the team eventually fell behind the USA, Great Britain and Nigeria.
Clark admits it was ‘a shattering experience, being way out front to come fourth. It was a magnificent effort, we ran our hearts out. But it’s hard to watch’.
Especially after Los Angeles, Clark’s talent, along with his looks, dazzling smile and easy charm made him a magnet for the Australian public, and a darling of the media.
Mike Hurst – who coached Clark from 1988 through to his greatest career achievement, a gold medal in Auckland – said Clark had ‘freakish talent’ as an athlete, but also ‘a very high pain threshold… he ran through pain’.
Clark has advice for young sprinters on how to avoid falling into the post-retirement traps he did. He is pictured with son Zen, who is showing promise in his dad’s favourite race: the 400m
Forty years after Clark raced as a teen in Los Angeles, he is excited for sprint sensation Gout Gout at the 2028 LA Games. (Pictured: Gout Gout after winning the 200m final in Perth in April)
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Clark ran 44.38, which would have placed him as the silver medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had he still been competing.
Clark did the time in a superb semi-final, but ran slightly slower in the final and finished fourth.
His personal best time of 44.38 seconds still holds to this day as the Australian 400m record, although Clark said with a laugh that ‘time is running out’ for that.
‘There’s some very good talent here right on track for knocking off my record,’ he said.
‘I would 100 per cent celebrate that. I’ve held it for a long time. Sometimes they are broken within a year!’
Clark would later be hailed as ‘the fastest white man alive’ when, at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, he beat two Kenyans, Samson Kitur and Simeon Kipkemboi, to take out a stunning victory in the 400m.
In his photograph after he won gold, Clark is the image of sporting success.
Pictured left: Clark’s masterful race at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, in which he beat Kenyan runners Samson Kitur and Simeon Kipkemboi to take out a stunning win. Right: Gout Gout, who Clark says moves like a dancer with his long stride, in the 200m in Monaco
Clark warms up for the men’s 400m at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, where he triumphed with a gold medal after having been pipped into fourth place at the LA and Seoul Olympics
Clark (right) with Australia’s 1990 men’s 400m relay team, including Robert Stone, Robert Ballard and Paul Greene. They were disqualified in the heats over a baton change
In the picture, a grinning Clark chomps down on his gold medal. It marked the pinnacle of his sporting career. Looking at another image of him with Hurst, his delight in finally triumphing is palpable.
At the time, he seemed to have a bright future ahead of him after athletics. A job in television as a sports commentator appeared likely.
But the media career never eventuated. Clark took a year off and played rugby league for the Balmain Tigers in 1991, under coach Alan Jones.
He scored 11 tries, and competed in the pre-season World Sevens Tournament, but tore a calf muscle in the process.
INJURY AND ACCIDENT
Clark then took up athletics coaching and, with the guidance of Hurst, a former long jumper, he was picked to compete at Barcelona in 1992.
‘But Darren’s Achilles blew out,’ Hurst said, and the athlete had surgery on his left leg.
‘I had the same surgery on my right leg a few years later. It was virtually impossible to get back into form,’ added Clark.
Clark mounted a return to the track in 1993, winning bronze in the 400m at the World Indoor Championships in Toronto, Canada. He was training for another comeback in the year 2000, but was injured in a car accident and charged with negligent driving.
Clark has turned a corner after becoming ‘lost in the wilderness’ of drug abuse and traffic violations. The former star athlete is now fit, healthy and helping his son’s athletics career
Zen Clark, Darren’s 23-year-old son, ran a sizzling time in a 300m winter season opener earlier this month, breaking a club record at the ES Marks Athletics Field in Sydney
It was one of many driving offences spanning three decades, which saw him spend time in police cells and lock-ups, and narrowly avoid more lengthy stays behind bars.
Unable to compete or find a direction in life, he also split from his first wife, Sue, with whom he had three children.
His last full-time job, coaching at the Australian Institute of Sport, ended in 2001.
‘I needed a break from the whole competitive nature of the thing, but I had to get to grips with retiring at an early age,’ he said.
‘I had no skills in any area except coaching.’
Clark met his second wife, Lydia, and moved to her home town of Bathurst, where they went on to have six children, the youngest of whom is nine. Clark’s eldest is 39.
As his traffic violations continued, Clark was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, struggled with depression and ADHD, and went on the disability pension.
Just four years ago, court documents reveal, police arrested him in West Ryde in Sydney on suspicion of casing houses for burglary and found in his possession a drug kit including hypodermic syringes and methamphetamine.
Olympic duo Maree Holland and Darren Clark are pictured with coach Mike Hurst (seen larking in the background)
Clark and Holland, above in 2020, discuss the training that helped them win medals
‘Yeah, it’s ice. I was too embarrassed to admit it,’ he told officers at the time.
Police recorded that he made ‘full and frank admissions to being in possession of 0.1 grams of meth – ice – stating he had purchased three points and had used two prior.
‘He admits to having been dependent on prohibited drugs since his retirement from rugby league in the early 1990s.’
Clark told police his embarrassment was over ‘the stigma with drugs as well as his previously having a high profile as an Olympian, a Commonwealth Games medallist and an NRL player’.
The same year, he was sentenced to a nine-month intensive corrections order to be served in the community for driving while disqualified, and ordered to perform 75 hours of community service.
LOWEST POINT OF HIS LIFE
The father of nine has now separated from his second wife. It’s a tremendous personal blow, but Clark remains committed to clean living and a positive outlook.
Instead of driving, he cycles ‘everywhere’ and is working as an adviser to his lookalike son, Zen Clark, who is an accomplished young sprinter.
He credits Zen’s interest in athletics, in part, with helping him emerge from that dark period.
‘All my kids are athletic, but had no desire to compete, and I don’t blame them really,’ he said.
‘But by the time Zen was coming out of primary school, he was interested in pursuing it. I’m impressed with his attitude.’
Earlier this month, Zen turned on the Clark magic at Athletics NSW’s winter track season opener at the ES Marks Athletics Field in Sydney.
Running for UTS Norths Athletics Club on July 6, he broke a club record with a sizzling 34 seconds in the 300m event.
Darren Clark with his son Zen, 23, who has followed in his father’s footsteps as a 400m runner and who recently won in a record time at a season opener
Although Zen’s coach is Andrew Murphy – the former triple jumper who coaches Australia’s fastest 100m runner, Rohan Browning – Darren is ‘supporting him, guiding him’.
In March, Zen ran 48.16 in a 400m event at Sydney Olympic Stadium.
‘He’s got a long way to go, but he’s going pretty good. I’m proud of him,’ Darren said.
Darren said Zen juggles training with ‘working long hours standing on his feet’. He adds with a laugh: ‘(He) needs a sponsor!’
ROAD TO REDEMPTION
Zen, 23, who has model looks and a remarkably fit physique just like his father in his prime, trains in between working as a salesman at a Toyota dealership.
He now shares an apartment with his dad in Ryde.
Darren Clark was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2000, and the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame in 2014.
His old coach Mike Hurst said that despite Darren getting sidetracked with substance abuse, ‘it’s all good now… he’s the fittest bloke for his age and completely compos mentis.
‘He fell in with some idiots and he lost his way – but now he’s back.’
Zen Clark showed some of the family magic recently at Athletics NSW’s winter track season opener on July 6 at ES Marks Athletics Field in Sydney
Darren, who when starting out ran the shorter sprints that Gout Gout and Lachie Kennedy are excelling at, was crowned the Australian junior champion in 100m, 200m and 400m.
After winning at Helsinki aged 17, Darren won his first British AAA 400m title in the same year and held the 400m world record for his age.
‘Gout Gout, I think, is magnificent – a really, really rare talent,’ said Clark, who stays ‘pretty much up to date’ with the Australian track scene.
‘Gout Gout and Lachie Kennedy are different athletes, they move differently.
‘Gout Gout has a larger stride, a longer gait, a much faster gait. He runs tall, on long legs.
‘Lachie has a greater frequency but is very efficient and very good.’
In March, Kennedy beat Gout Gout in the men’s 200m final at a meet in Melbourne.
Then in April, Gout Gout beat Kennedy in the 200m men’s final at the Australian Open and Under 20 Athletics Championships in Perth.
‘Gout Gout and his coach are in a really great group. It’s great what they are doing and making no mistakes,’ Clark said.
Lachie Kennedy congratulates Gout Gout on his win in the men’s 200m at the 2025 Australian Open and Under 20 Athletics Championships in Perth in April
Zen Clark has model looks and an enviable physique – and, according to Darren, an impressive attitude that makes his father ‘really proud of him’
‘He’s got a really good head on his shoulders.’
‘He’s being compared with Usain Bolt and I’m impressed (with) how he’s holding up. He’ll fill a stadium.
‘I’m really excited for Gout Gout. He has a fantastic team behind him. He’s already in the mix (for the 2028 LA Olympics). He’s definitely a finalist in the World Championships (in Tokyo in September).’
Clark said, for now and going forward, he would tell Gout Gout ‘to enjoy it while you can’ but to prepare for after his track career ends by having another skill or job lined up. An ongoing support system is also vital.
‘If I was in his corner, I would say now just enjoy the ride, just express yourself like a dancer,’ Clark said.
‘When things are going well, it’s easy when you are riding the wave. At the end of your career, or when it comes to an end through injury, all sorts of things can happen, personal things, life things.
‘That’s why it’s so important to have a team support network because that’s when you need it.’
Apart from guiding his son Zen, Clark may just have a new job coaching other 400m runners.
‘I’ve got a girl from South Australia, 400m runner, that’s all I coach,’ said Hurst.
‘Darren’s been helping me a little bit and he doesn’t know it yet.’
