How this Yorta Yorta man revolutionised running with one simple stance

Every athlete knows the crouch start is the key to a successful run, but few know the iconic position was created on Cummergunja Mission by a young Yorta Yorta runner.

From Cummergunja to the world, how Bobby McDonald created every runner's favourite starting stance. Credit: NITV/Getty Images Creative

From the Olympic arena to red dirt races, it’s the starting position that launches athletes into action – and it was created by a Yorta Yorta man.

Familiar to any athletics fans, the ‘crouch start’ is the position runners take prior to racing.

With one leg back, and the other under the shoulders, the position is said to be the most effective way for runners to get that ‘oomph’ when the starting gun goes off.

While the stance is officially used in both professional and playful sprinting today, its origins go back to 1887 when a young Bobby McDonald took the starting line.

One of the only photos of Bobby which featured on the front page of the newspaper The Referee, on June 25, 1913. Photo is credited to a E. A. Krute (Numurkah) Credit: Trove/The National Library of Australia

The star runner from Cummeragunja Mission on the Murray River developed the technique, saying the “sitting style” combats the weather.

“I first got the idea of the sitting style of start, as I always called it, to dodge the strong winds, which made me feel cold and miserable while waiting for the starter to send us away,” McDonald told The Referee, a newspaper, in 1913.

“One day while sitting down, almost, the starter sent us away, and I found that I could get off the mark much quicker than ever I could standing, and afterwards I always used the sitting or crouch start.

“I never saw anyone using what is known as the crouch start before I did.”

The crouch has been likened to the way kangaroos move across the landscape.

“Anyone acquainted with the habits of the kangaroo will know that when feeling they put the paws of their feet on the ground, and when startled rise up and bound off at a terrible pace,” wrote the Referee in 1913.

McDonald's style became so popular, it spread across the world.

Runners would dig their shoes into the dirt to create a solid footing for the crouch position. In the 1920s starting blocks were created to cope with the popularity of the stance.

By 1935 starting blocks were patented, and two years later they were officially endorsed for the start of all sprint races.

Australia's Cathy Freeman in 'crouch stance' before the Women's 400m Final at the Olympic Games in Sydney. Credit: John Giles - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images

McDonald's legitimacy as the 'creator' of the crouch has seen some contention in its time.

But in McDonald's death notice, published in the Referee, his legacy rings true.

"The all-fours set is claimed by many followers of athletics to have originated in Australia, and if a vote was taken amongst old-timers as to who was the originator, it would probably go to Bobby McDonald," it reads.

McDonald passed away back home on Cummeragunja Mission, after falling sick with "pneumonic influenza".