Virginia Moloney (VIC)

DOB: 06 May 1990

Age:

Virginia Moloney has been running competitively for just three years. The recreational runner decided in 2014 to join a squad and compete in track events. Late in 2014, she placed fourth in the Melbourne half-marathon in a time of 79:40 and in December placed 13th in the Zatopek 10,000m race (35:40.7). A year later (in late 2015), the benefits of squad training and with a coach were obvious. Her half-marathon best was down to 75:24 (winning the Burnley race), and at Zatopek, she placed third in a 100 second PB of 34:00.40. She also made an excellent marathon debut of 2:41.36, placing third in Melbourne. In 2016, she slashed her PB across all her events, including over a minute in the 10,000m (now down to 32:53.04), the half marathon (72:25) and most impressively the marathon with 2:34.27, winning the national title held in conjunction with the Melbourne marathon. Early

in 2017, she was selected for Australia to compete at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships where she finished 79th. Her mid-year focus was the Gold Coast marathon, and there was another significant drop in her PB, to 2:29.14, to become just the ninth Australian under 2:30.

In a time of great depth for Australian female marathon running, in January 2018 she was named to run in the marathon for Australia at the Commonwealth Games.

The secondary school teacher, who completed a PE degree at RMIT, plays the piano and relaxes doing crosswords. Virginia comes from a massive family; she has ten siblings, her father is one of 11 and her mother one of 18.