Marathon Madness | Australia’s Best Descend on Valencia
Published Thu 30 Nov 2023
A quartet of Australia’s leading marathoners are set to do battle on the roads of Valencia this Sunday, all carrying a storyline of their own as the race for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games heats up. The qualifying standard sits at 2:26:50 and the head-to-head showdown is set to take place in primetime.
The course has been tried and tested by Sinead Diver’s 2:21:34 Australian record from December of 2022. Just hours earlier, Brett Robinson will return to the site of his 2:07:31 Australian record - the Fukuoka Marathon.
Lisa Weightman
Marathons: 23
Personal best: 2:23:15
Olympic Games: Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Biggest week this preparation: 202km
Favourite marathon session: 5x1600m (90 seconds rest)
Pre-race dinner: Japanese rice and French fries
Best travel tip: Pack your racing kit in your carry on. You can buy almost anything you need when you get to your destination but your racing shoes and outfit are your super power!
Being within reach of the Australian record in marathon number 24, 15 years after her first, tells you everything you need to know about the longevity and class of Lisa Weightman (Dick Telford).
Only nine Australians in history have contested five or more Summer Olympic Games, with Weightman eager to put her best foot forward in Valencia to join that club in 2024. Having already registered a qualifying performance of 2:23:15 in Osaka, Japan this February, the 44-year-old will return to the roads after finishing in 16th place at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
A road specialist with personal bests of 31:50 (10km) and 1:08:48 (Half Marathon) over the shorter distances, Weightman will look to close in on Sinead Diver’s 2:21:34 Australian record set last December, balancing the delicate trade-off between ambition and preservation in a bid to time her finish to perfection.
The third fastest Australian woman in history behind Diver and Benita Willis (2:22:36), Weightman’s training is a family affair as she clocks kilometres alongside husband Lachlan and nephew Tom, while her son Pete zips around the track on his scooter.
Genevieve Gregson
Marathons: 1
Personal Best: 2:28:33
Olympic Games: London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Biggest week this preparation: 153km
Favourite marathon session: 37km fartlek session (a series of efforts all combine together over 2 hours and 20 minutes)
Pre-race dinner: Rice or tuna
Best travel tip: Work off your destinations time zone as soon as you board the plane (sleep during sleep hours, stay awake during wake hours), stay hydrated and don’t nap the first few days of jet lag.
It is hard to fathom that in a shortened Olympic cycle of three years, Genevieve Gregson (Nic Bideau) has transitioned events, returned from double Achilles surgery and childbirth to be chasing a fourth consecutive Olympic berth at the age of 34.
With only one marathon to her name, Gregson naturally has the greatest room for improvement in Valencia. Making her debut on the Gold Coast in July with a 2:28:33 performance, followed by a series of stunning wins from cross country to the half marathon, the former steeplechaser presents as willing and ready to discover her true potential in the marathon.
Rupturing her Achilles on the final water jump of the 3000m steeplechase at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the 34-year-old endured the long road to recovery compounded by the birth of her son Archer – now finding herself on the brink of completing a comeback for the ages.
Coming within seconds of her Australian record in the 3000m steeplechase in 2021 and now the nation’s 12th fastest female marathoner in history (and rising), Gregson has already proved that two years is a long time in running.
You can’t teach grit, and Gregson has it in spades.
Isobel Batt-Doyle
Marathons: 3
Personal Best: 2:27:54
Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020
Biggest week this preparation: 204km
Favourite marathon session: 5x4km (2 minutes rest)
Pre-race dinner: As many bowls of white race as I can get in! Maybe with some soy sauce or just salt and white bread on the side.
When you love running as much as Izzi Batt-Doyle (Nic Bideau) does, the marathon is a natural choice.
At 28-years-old, the Tokyo Olympian on the track has diverted her focus to the roads and is quickly amassing experience – headlined by her 2023 World Championships appearance in the marathon (43rd).
Batt-Doyle’s personal best of 2:27:54 came when clinching a top-10 finish at the Nagoya Marathon in March, wasting no time in her transition with frequent world-class performances amidst heavy training blocks.
Punching in Australian best time of 48:22 for a 15km road race off the back of three consecutive 200km weeks, the mileage machine is poised to strike the perfect balance between speed and endurance in marathon number four, sitting top-10 on the Australian all-time lists for 5000m and 10,000m.
A member of three Australian teams in 2023 when competing at the World Cross Country Championships, World Championships and World Road Running Championships, Batt-Doyle’s underrated year could be capped off with 42.2km of brilliance to set up a second Olympic campaign at Paris 2024.
Eloise Wellings
Marathons: 7
Personal Best: 2:25:10
Olympic Games: London 2012, Rio 2016
26 years after making her debut on the world stage at the 1998 World Under 20 Championships, Eloise Wellings (Nic Bideau) is a genuine contender to don the green and gold for a third Olympic Games at Paris 2024.
With a run of 2:25:10 in Nagoya in 2022, Wellings skyrocketed to number five on the Australian all-time list, rising above hero Kerryn McCann who took her under her wing as a rising junior in the early 2000’s. Proceeding to finish fourth at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games at her first representative appearance since 2018, the mother of two (Sonny and Indi) was well and truly back in the international picture.
A leader in the athletics community as a co-founder of the Love Mercy Foundation, assisting communities in Uganda to overcome the impacts of civil war and empowering women to access education and sustainable solutions, the influence of Wellings’ success has spread far and wide.
Clocking 2:31:38 at her most recent marathon on the Gold Coast in July, the two-time Olympian will be out to return to her best on the roads of Valencia and look to add year number 26 to her representative career.
By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 30/11/2023
