Road Runners Sublime as Emerging Track Stars Shine | Weekend Review

Many Australians may have had their feet up for the long weekend, but there was little rest for a number of Australia’s top athletes who demonstrated their class across the globe with a series of strong results both on the road and the track.

Japan’s Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon saw Sinead Diver (Nic Bideau) lead the way with a scorching 69:00 performance en route to clinching second place, narrowly outside her 68:50 personal best from 2020. Trailing only Kenya’s Dolphine Nyaboke Omare to the finish line, the 21.1km effort saw the Australian bounce back into form ahead of a big year on the international circuit – where the evergreen Diver will be looking to emulate the form of her top-10 finish in Tokyo.

Diver’s compatriots assisted in stamping an Australian presence on the race, with Eloise Wellings (Nic Bideau) clocking 70:42 to cross the line in fourth place, closely followed by the emerging Natalie Rule (Tim O’Shaughnessy) – who continued her rise with a personal best of 71:24 to finish in sixth place.  

The road action rolled on with Andrew Buchanan (Scott Westcott) punching in an emphatic debut over the gruelling marathon distance, registering a time of 2:12:23 at the Haspa Hamburg Marathon to finish in 15^th place.

A popular figure on the Australian athletics scene, the multiple time Australian cross country champion delivered in spades when blitzing his long-awaited maiden 42.2km race, reaping the rewards of years of consistency.

The time falls outside of the 2:11:30 qualifying standard for this year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon and Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, yet his name will be a welcomed addition to the Australian marathon stocks – placing Buchanan firmly in the picture to don the green and gold later this year.

Ed Goddard (Gavin Burren) contributed to the road frenzy with an unofficial half marathon time of 63:25 at the ASICS META:TIME:TRIALS in Malaga, with the mileage monster making the most of his time overseas having already clocked a 2:13:45 marathon personal best earlier this month in Manchester.

The NCAA outdoor season is starting to heat up and so too is Wisconin’s Adam Spencer, with the 20-year-old looking set to add to a rich Australian history at the Madison-based school with a swift 3:37.40 run over 1500m to finish in third place at the Oregon Relays. Spencer returned the next day to make it two career-best runs for the weekend, running 1:50.21 to finish in sixth place of the 800m.  

Also in action at Hayward Field were the Oregon duo of Isabella Thornton-Bott and Thomas Palfrey, with Thronton-Bott shaving her 1500m personal best down to 4:13.75, while Palfrey stopped the clock in 3:45.25 in the 1500m and 1:51.91 in the 800m the following day.

At the Virginia Challenge it was Aleksander Kolesnikoff (Harvard) and Zach Facioni (Wake Forrest) who registered top-five finishes, with Kolesnikoff recording a distance of 19.15m to finish in second place of the shot put, while Facioni made his way around 5000m in a time of 13:37.09 to finish in fifth – both strong early-season showings.

Jason Clayton (Loyola) lead a tightly contested Australian trio in the metric mile at Virginia when setting a new personal best of 3:42.33, while Samuel Field (Florida State) ran 3:42.72 and Duncan Miller (Princeton) clocked 3:43.78. On the women’s side, it was Maudie Skyring (Florida State) who opened outdoor proceedings with a run of 4:19.62.

Olympic finalist Jessica Hull (Pete Julian) continued her dominance on Australian soil with a slick win at Run The Tan, tearing around the 3.827km perimeter of the iconic Royal Botanic Garden in a time of 11:46, while James Hansen took out the Men’s race in a time of 10:44.

Reece Langdon (Philo Saunders) backed up his national title with a win in the Elite Para event when beating home teammate Jaryd Clifford in a time of 11:17, with Declan Tingay (Steven Tingay) and Jemima Montag (Brent Vallance) taking out the Race Walking titles earlier in times of 14:56 and 15:48 respectively.

At last week’s at the Australian Unisport National Championships, Olympian Joel Baden (Sandro Bisetto) cleared 2.26m to take home the title in a new meet record, while world junior-bound Emilia Surch (Glynis Nunn) demonstrated her versatility with a double of 13.71 (+3.7) in the 100m hurdles and 6.18m (0.0) in the long jump. Daniel Bounty (Peter Bock, T38) was in fine form with a double of his own, clocking 2:01.60 over 800m and 4:10.23 in the 1500m.

One of most admirable results of the weekends came from Victorian endurance machine Dion Fonocchiaro, who took out the Australian 100km Championships in a time of 6:30:43 – equating to a stunning 3:54/km and falling just over one-minute outside of the Australian record.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 25/4/2022