SA long-distance runner Izzi Batt-Doyle sets new SA marathon record, smashes her own PB

Izzi Batt-Doyle has taken more than four minutes off her own personal best to break a state marathon record set more than three and a half decades ago.

Batt-Doyle crushed her PB by more than four minutes in the Valencia Marathon. Picture: Instagram

Home-grown Olympian Izzi Batt-Doyle is continuing to raise her own benchmark, taking a whopping four and a half minutes off her personal best in a marathon in Spain.

It’s the fastest marathon time by a female South Australian, beating the previous record that has stood for almost four decades.

The Flinders Athletics Club champion ran the Valencia Marathon, held on December 3, in a time of 2:23:27.

Her time sets a new record for a SA female, topping Gawler girl Lisa Ondieki’s longstanding record of 2.23.51, on January 31, 1988, at the Osaka Women’s Marathon in Japan.

It’s the fifth all-time fastest finish by an Australian and comes in quicker than Olympic hero and Commonwealth Games golden girl, Jess Stenson.

Stenson ran her personal best in Perth on October 2021, 2.25.15, clocking the fastest time ever run by an Australian on home soil – her first marathon since welcoming her eldest child, Billy, in 2019.

Lisa Ondieki previously held the record as the fastest South Australian woman to run a marathon, set in January 1988. File picture

Batt-Doyle says it’s time to ‘put up the legs’ after an incredible run – and personal best – in the Valencia Marathon. Picture: Instagram

In a post shared on Instagram, an excited Batt-Doyle said the achievement had made all the hard work – and months living overseas away from home – worthwhile.

“Wow! Four months away from home but it was all worth it,” she wrote, paying special tribute to her partner and coach Riley Cocks, British long-distance runner Charlotte Purdue and Melbourne International Track Club coach Nic Bidea.

She also referenced her family and the Adelaide-based group training program she runs with Cocks and “everyone I met in Font Romeu”.

“Congrats to the other Aus ladies who ran today to produce four qualifiers in the same race – Aus women’s marathon running is on and it’s an honour to be part of it,” she wrote.

“Time to put the legs up and finally come home.”

The event is an Olympic qualifier for next year’s Paris Olympics where Batt-Doyle has ranked fourth for Australia women in the selection period.

Australia’s Genevieve Gregson, 34, looks set to qualify for a fourth Olympic Games after she also ran a personal best in marathon.

Gregson slashed her PB down from 2:28:23 – already the second-fastest by an Aussie woman on debut – to 2:23:08, the third-fastest in Australian history. She finished eighth in the event.

Gregson suffered a heartbreaking end to her appearance in the 3000m steeplechase final at the Tokyo Games, taken off in a wheelchair after rupturing her Achilles tendon, and has since been on the comeback trail while also becoming a mum for the first time.

Lisa Weightman (2:24:18) and Eloise Wellings (2:25:47) also ran under the Olympic qualifying standard of 2:26:50, with times of 2:24:18 and 2:25:47 respectively.

Closer to home, it was on December 31 last year Batt-Doyle smashed the record for the fastest 5km parkrun by a female – a week after it was set by UK runner Melissa Courtney-Bryant.

The Adelaide runner’s time of 15:25 at Aldinga beat the previous world best of 15:31.

“It was amazing to run a parkrun world record … to finish out a big 2022 of running for me,” the then 27-year-old told The Advertiser.

“It’s a bit of a family tradition to run the New Year’s Aldinga Parkrun … I held the course record (but) it was a couple minutes slower … 17:35, in 2020.

“It is pretty cool to see the record having chunks taken off it over the last couple of years and switching hands regularly – it shows how strong the running community is and how many people are getting involved in Parkrun.”