Three Redland athletes finished on the podeium at the Gold Coast Airport marathon, held on July 1.
They were Lachlan Cornelius of Birkdale, Gemma Hooper of Victoria Point and Emily Witt of Wellington Point. Cornelius competed in the boy’s Zespri 4km Junior Dash, clocking a time of 13:16 to complete the 4km course and place second behind winner Jaxon Paterson-Wright from Coorparoo.
Hooper ran in the girl’s Zespri 2km Junior Dash with a time 7:19 to complete the 2km course and place second behind winner Kyah Anderson from Currumbin Valley, Qld while Witt ran in the girl’s Zespri 4km Junior Dash in the time of 14:23 to complete the 4km course and place second by one second behind winner Chloe Randall from Cabarlah.
This year’s 39th annual Gold Coast Airport Marathon attracted 24,902 participants from 47 countries including close to 6,000 runners in the full 42.195km marathon and close to 600 in the Zespri 4km Junior Dash. More than 3,200 runners competed from overseas and more than 7,000 from interstate.
A highlight was Abebech Bekele from Ethiopia setting a new race record of 2:25:34 when winning the women’s Gold Coast Airport Marathon.
Takuya Naguchi from Japan won the men’s Gold Coast Airport Marathon in 2:08:59 beating two-time winner Kenneth Mungara from Kenya in a sprint finish.
The finish times of Bekele and Naguchi were both the fourth fastest marathon times ever recorded in Australia for women and men respectively.
The 39th annual Gold Coast Airport Marathon featured the full Marathon over 42.2km, Wheelchair Marathon, ASICS Half Marathon, Southern Cross University 10km Run, The Star Gold Coast 5.7km Challenge, Zespri 4km Junior Dash and Zespri 2km Junior Dash.