Australia's Village Road Show Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon is set to return next weekend for its first full-on in-person edition since 2019. The elite fields for its half marathon and marathon division are smaller than usual but full of top domestic talent with some international support from the U.S.A., Japan, and elsewhere.
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A familiar face in Japan, Eloise Wellings leads the women's half marathon, her PB of 1:09:29 set at the Marugame Half in 2016. Earlier this year she ran a marathon best of 2:25:10 in Nagoya and 1:10:42 for 4th at the Gifu Seiryu Half, setting up a good head-to-head race with Jessica Stenson, 2:25:15 in Perth last fall and with a 1:10:59 best in Marugame in 2018.
Brett Robinson leads the men's half marathon with a 59:57 NR for the win in Marugame in 2020. Tim Vincent is his strongest competition on paper with a 1:01:43 on the aided Rome-Ostia Half course earlier this year, but Joel Tobin-White, 1:02:03 in Marugame 2019, Commonwealth Games-bound Liam Adams, Ed Goddard and 2019 Tachikawa Year-End Half winner Andy Buchanan are all up there. Chuo University has two team members, Yudai Nakazawa and Haruto Wakabayashi, in the race too, following in the footsteps of Oregon 2022 World Championships marathon team member Gaku Hoshi who ran the Gold Coast Half in 2019 with support from JRN as a student at Teikyo University.
Tokyo Paralympics T54 marathon gold medalist Madison de Rozario leads the women's wheelchair marathon field with support from Paralympic teammate Christie Dawes, 8th in Tokyo last summer. Jake Lappin and Richard Colman are the only experienced marathoners in the men's wheelchair race, with Luke Bailey and Cory Crombie making their debuts over the distance.
On paper the women's marathon sets up a rematch between Lisa Weightman and Haruka Yamaguchi, who ran almost the entire way together at the 2020 Osaka International Women's Marathon. Weightman broke away late in the race to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in 2:26:02 with Yamaguchi next in a PB 2:26:35. But Americans Lindsay Flanagan and Stephanie Bruce have both run faster than either Weightman or Yamaguchi has since then, Flanagan with a 2:26:54 in Paris this spring and Bruce with a 2:28:02 in Boston. Yamaguchi's domestic rival Shiho Kaneshige ran 2:29:26 in Tokyo this year, so whatever happens in the planned 1:11:45 first half lead group, the competition in the 1:14:00 second group should be tough.
The men's marathon is the most international race of the day, with elite athletes from five countries. Belgian Amaury Paquet ran 2:13:54 in Barcelona last fall, followed closely by GBR's Nick Earl, 2:14:38 at the Lake Biwa Marathon in 2019. New Zealand's David Ridley has a 2:17:20 from Sydney last year, with Samuel Gebremichael and Tokyo Paralympics T12 marathon silver medalist Jaryd Clifford the only Australians with recent sub-2:20 times. Louis McAfee is making a noteworthy debut at age 25, his 1:04:14 half marathon best suggesting potential to be top Australian in the race.
Jo Fukuda ran his PB of 2:09:52 at the 2018 Gold Coast Marathon and is returning for the first time since then, his most recent run a 2:11:29 at February's Osaka Marathon. Akihiro Kaneko has run a PB every year since his marathon debut in 2017, starting with a 2:22:49 and going to a 2:11:39 to finish just behind Fukuda in Osaka. Gold Coast will be his international debut. Past winner Yuki Kawauchi is running his first marathon since finishing 20th at April's Boston Marathon in 2:12:55. After being diagnosed with COVID a few days later he was unable to start at least his next three races, so Gold Coast will mark a return to competition.
Check back closer to race date for more info on streaming and following the races live.
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