Athletics Australia – News – Walker and Bird triumph

Triple Olympian Lee Troop was hoping to pull the curtain down on his running career with a win in the Australian marathon championship yesterday.

But instead it was another veteran of Australian athletics – 44-year-old Rowan Walker, that came through to claim the national title in 2:21.47.

Walker, as is his custom, sat back early and allowed Newcastle’s Vlad Shratov to get away by more than 400m before hauling him back in at around the 35km mark.

"I didn't expect to come through the younger guys today,'' Walker, who is back in Canberra working with the Australian Navy, said.

"It's a bit of a shock because it's hard mentally and physically to keep it going at my age. I don't know if I'll be able to do it again but I'll be back next year."

Ipswich's Alastair Stevenson, a former champion 1500m runner, showed the benefits of a harder regimen under the coaching of Benita Willis to charge home for second in 2:23.48, just ahead of Shratov (2:24.45).

“I’m 35 now and work a 60 hour week as a ham and bacon maunfaturer, so I’m a weekend warrior doing it for fun now,’’ Stevenson said.

“It’s only been in the last three months since Benita Willis started training a group of us that I’ve been doing the right sort of work. I think Benita has a bottle of champagne waiting. so we’ll top that tonight as celebration.”

Troop, now 42 and living in Boulder, Colorado, stopped seven times for cramps between 25 and 30km before being pepped up by a can of flat coke that helped him get to the line as fifth Aussie in 2:27.23.

“The challenge was just to get to the start line. The marathon’s a hard event, if it was easy everyone would be doing it,’’ Troop said.

A record field of 5641 entrants for the Gold Coast Airport Marathon featured 12 runners with sub 2:10 PBs, but only one – Kenyan Silah Limo – managed to achieve that goal in warm conditions with a slight offshore breeze.

The 22-year-old from Eldoret set a hot early pace and managed to hang on to eclipse the Australian all-comers mark with his time of 2:09.14.

That was four seconds faster than Australian distance great Rob de Castella, who had held the fastest time in Australia for 32 years with his 2:09.18 in the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games.

With many star Aussies about to head overseas for the Glasgow Games, the local runners chose to sit back off the internationals and battle for Australian honours.

Dubbo’s Jane Fardell set the tempo in the women’s race but noticeably began limping at around the 30km mark and ended up fifth in 2:53.50.

That opened the door for Echucha’s Tarli Bird, who picked up the tempo from half way in her debut marathon and stormed home to win in 2:43.58.

“I’m over the moon because it’s my first marathon,’’ the 27-year-old school teacher said.

“It hit me when I got to 35km and then I started counting down the kilometres from there.’’

Another huge run and PB came from Brisbane real estate agent Aarthi Venkatesan, who was second Australian in 2:47.30.

Venkatesan, a mum of two and former elite junior tennis player, could not hide her joy at coming second in the national title.

“My four-year-old daughter Savannah will so be pleased. She collects all my medals and she’ll be rapt that I’ve got another one for her, Venkatesan said.

Earlier two runners – Sydney’s Brad Milosevic and Tasmania’s Millie Clark – had provided major upsets to be first Australians home in the half marathon.

Milosevic ran a three minute PB to finish just behind Kenyan Olympic gold medallist Reuben Kosgei.

Milosevic’s time of 65.33 was enough to beat training partner Jeff Hunt for the first time.

"I don't think I've ever even beaten him in a training run, he's that competitive," Milosevic said.

"I can't run 1500m to save my life (his PB is 4:02), but I'm slowly chipping away. I have been racing for 13 years now and this is my biggest win so far. I’ve never actually got a podium until now."

Clark, a Launceston athlete who has moved to Sydney University to study, came from seventh place at the halfway mark and charged home to win in 74.06.

The 25-year-old was a junior gymnast in Launceston with Karinna Fyfe and is now being coached by James "Jimbo" Fitzgerald in Parramatta.

“I only started running five years ago. My background was sprinting and I promised myself ‘no more than one lap’. Then I did 25. Now here I am doing 21kms.”

 

Athletics Australia – News

 

 

Australian Marathon Championship results

Female:

1 Tarli Bird (Vic) 2:43.58

2 Aaarthi Venkatesan (Qld) 2:47.30

3 Nera Jerab (WA) 2:5.16

4 Melanie McDonald (NSW) 2:52.02

5 Jane Fardell (NSW) 2:53.50

Winning team: NSW

Male:

1 Rowan Walker (ACT) 2:21.47

2 Alastair Stevenson (Qld) 2:23.48

3 Vlad Shratov (NSW) 2:24.45

4 John Dutton (Vic) 2:26.49

5 Lee Troop (Vic) 2:27.23

Winning team: Queensland