Words: Emma Halliday
Design: Michael Jones

Emma Bible doesn’t want to settle for back-to-back. After securing consecutive Great Court Race crowns in 2023 and 2024, the Bachelor of Education (Primary) student is eyeing off a ‘three-peat’ and a place on the list of elite runners who have won 3 or more titles.

But she knows it won’t come easy as the University celebrates the 40th anniversary of the race that stops UQ on May 21.

“Every year, the competition just gets stronger,” Bible said.

“People graduate and new runners come through – there are some great young guns getting around out there.”

Traditionally a 400m and 800m specialist, the 636m race around UQ’s Great Court cloisters has proved to be a sweet spot for the 20-year-old.

For Bible, the race is about more than just another win. It’s about being part of a legacy of elite athletes who have left their mark on the event.

“I don't think I quite understood how much history the event held when I was a first-year student,” she said.

“It’s surreal to see the names of past winners and realise some of them have gone on to compete at the Olympics.

“To even be mentioned alongside those athletes is something really special.”

Following famous footsteps

If successful in her bid for a third straight win, Bible will join a list of 3-time women’s champions including Daina Surka, Olympic 4x400m relay runner Caitlin Sargent-Jones and the mother of one of Bible’s close friends, Sandra Dawson.

“The last time I won Sandra congratulated me and asked me if I had beaten her time,” Bible said.

“I hadn’t then but watch out, I’m coming for you this time, Sandy!”

A formidable 1:41.68 seconds is the time Bible is chasing, set by Dawson in 1993.

“Emma has every potential to beat my time- I wish her and the other competitors the best of luck,” Dawson said.

“It's great to know it's still an event on the UQ calendar.”

Dawson wasn’t just the first woman to pull off a three-peat, she went on to record a total of 5 wins in 6 years between 1988 and 1993.

“That first year some other students asked if I had entered, so I figured I should look into it,” she said. 

“I seem to remember the prize of a book voucher from the UQ book store being quite a draw card.” 

But the Great Court Race was just one chapter in Dawson’s amazing athletics career.

The Bachelor of Physiotherapy (’93) graduate dominated the track at a national level, winning gold in the 800m at the Australian Championships in 1994 and 1995, and reached the final of the 800m at the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

A tradition etched in sandstone

For 40 years, the Great Court Race has been a test of speed, strategy and stamina in which UQ’s fastest students jostle their way through the arched cloisters, battling lactic acid and chasing a place in history.

If this all sounds cinematic, that’s because it is.

The race takes inspiration from Cambridge University’s famed Great Court Run – immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire – and was first run at UQ in 1985 in front of the Duke and Duchess of Kent to commemorate the University’s 75th anniversary.

Like its Cambridge counterpart, where runners race against the time it takes the clocktower chimes to strike 12pm, 4 athletes are pitted head-to-head and aim to cross the finish line before 12 bell chimes in order to claim a race record.

That record still stands with Simon Still, who crossed the line in a time of 1:26.40 seconds in 1991 – his fourth victory in as many years.

Other notable champions include inaugural winner and 3-time men's champion Stephen Shirley and Olympians Mitchell Kealey (2007) and Cara Feain-Ryan (2021-22).

A Para-relay race will be introduced into the Great Court Race schedule this year.

The race will feature 2 teams made up of a frame runner, an ambulant runner and a wheelchair athlete with each completing a 70m leg along the Great Court’s central pathway.