Running great Ron Clarke dies, aged 78

World champion runner and former Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke has died at the age of 78.

The Gold Coast City Council confirmed Mr Clarke's passing on the Gold coast early on Wednesday.

The man who rose to become one of Australia's greatest middle and distance runners had recently been in poor health.

Clarke gained prominence on the athletics track in the 1950s and 1960s and officially set 17 world records.

After his athletics career ended, he served two terms as the Gold Coast mayor from 2004, before making an unsuccessful tilt at state politics.

In 1956, when Clarke was 19 and showing a lot of promise as a runner, he was chosen to light the flame during the opening ceremony for the Melbourne Olympics.

At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, he won a bronze medal in the 10,000-metre event, but he never went on to snare Olympic gold.

Perhaps his most famous race came four years later at the Olympics in Mexico City, when he collapsed and came close to dying from altitude sickness during the gruelling final in the 10,000 metres.

Clarke finished in sixth place, but later said he could not recall anything about the final stretches of the race. He went on to compete in the 5,000-metre event a few days later.