Jeff Julian

Jeff Julian was born Jeffrey Lynn Julian in Taumarunui, New Zealand, on 9 October 1935. He spent his early years in Awarua and Ruawai in Northland, where he joined the Bank of New Zealand as a young man. At 18 he transferred with the bank to Auckland, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Little has been published about Julian's formal schooling. His real education as an athlete came in Auckland under coach Arthur Lydiard, whose high-mileage endurance system also shaped Murray Halberg, Peter Snell and Barry Magee. Julian ran for the Owairaka club, of which he became a life member, and Athletics New Zealand also lists Mt Roskill as his local club.

Julian represented Auckland from 1954 to 1976 and New Zealand from 1957 to 1971. His first national team appearance was a trans-Tasman cross country test in Brisbane in 1957. In 1959 he won the New Zealand cross country title and was second in the Hellenic International marathon in Athens.

He ran the marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympics, finishing 18th in 2:24:51. At the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth he was seventh in the marathon (2:30:13) and tenth in the six miles (29:50). In October 1963 he won the pre-Olympic marathon in Tokyo, the Asahi international race held that year on the Olympic course, in about 2:18:01, earning the nickname "King Julian" from the Japanese press. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics he finished 29th in 2:27:58.

In 1965 he was sixth and first New Zealander at the International Cross Country Championships in Ostend, Belgium, helping New Zealand to team bronze. He was fifth in the marathon at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica (2:32:46) and 21st at the 1967 International Cross Country Championships in Barry, Wales, where New Zealand were second as a team.

1969 was one of his best years. He won the Canadian National Exhibition Marathon in Toronto, set world best times for 30 and 40 miles on the Lovelock Track, and ran his personal best of 2:14:38 for eighth at the Fukuoka Marathon. He finished 18th in the marathon at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh (2:24:03). He missed selection for the 1968 Olympics and made an unsuccessful bid for 1972.

He won eleven New Zealand titles: marathon (1963, 1968, 1969, 1970), cross country (1959, 1965) and road (1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972). In 1980 he won the world veterans cross country title. He completed 65 marathons in all, the last at Rotorua in 1989, where he finished 617th in 3:05:42.

Julian worked for the Bank of New Zealand for 36 years until he was made redundant. He then tried several business ventures, including selling live aloe vera to farmers, which he said was stopped by the government at great cost to him. In 2000, two weeks after being declared bankrupt, he was sentenced in the Auckland District Court to two years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding American Express and Diners Club International. The New Zealand Herald reported the losses at more than $400,000; Olympedia records 198 credit card transactions worth over $2 million between 1996 and 1998. Julian blamed overseas funds that never arrived, but said: "The only person I'm bitter with is myself."

Julian lived for decades in Mount Roskill, Auckland. In January 2007 burglars broke into his home and took ten New Zealand championship gold medals and a gold medal from the South African Games, leaving behind bronze and silver medals and trophies. Details of his family have not been made public.

Julian was known above all for his belief in sheer training volume, the core of the Lydiard method, and was described as obsessive about his training. Reflecting on his prison sentence in 2000 he spoke of acceptance: "Life is about getting used to what each day brings."

Athletics New Zealand remembers Julian as the running machine of the 1960s and lists him among its legends. He was one of the Lydiard-trained runners who made New Zealand a world force in distance running, and his 1963 victory in Tokyo made him a celebrity in Japan ahead of the 1964 Games. His world bests for 30 and 40 miles, his world veterans cross country title and his 65 completed marathons reflect a career spanning more than three decades.

Lonsdale Cup (1969). Eleven New Zealand national titles. Winner of the 1963 pre-Olympic marathon in Tokyo and the 1969 Canadian National Exhibition Marathon. World veterans cross country champion (1980). Life member of the Owairaka Athletic Club. New Zealand Olympian number 134.

Archive footage of the races he ran survives, including the 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Olympic marathons published by the Olympic Games channel and British Pathé newsreel of the 1965 International Cross Country Championships in Belgium. A 1960 photograph of Julian at the Owairaka club prizegiving before the Rome Olympics is held in Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.

In 2000 Julian was jailed for two years for conspiracy to defraud between 1996 and 1998, after pleading guilty to defrauding American Express and Diners Club International. Olympedia lists him among Olympians who were sent to prison.

Jeff Julian died on Saturday 7 November 2026, aged 91. Athletics New Zealand announced his death in its weekly round up on 9 November 2026. The cause and place of his death have not been made public.