In this morning’s Maratón Valencia Sinéad Diver ran a fantastic 2:21:34 pb finishing 11th to break the Australian record.
She beat the Australian record 2:22:36 set by Benita Willis in 2006 at the Chicago Marathon.
“Benita is Australia’s best runner of all time so it’s an honour to now have this record. I couldn’t be prouder today,” Diver said.
Sinéad’s previous marathon best was in April 2019 when she ran 2:24:11 in 7th place in the the London Marathon.
This Valencia time also makes her the fastest Irish woman marathoner, putting her almost a minute ahead of Catherina McKiernan’s 2:22.23 National record set in Amsterdam in 1998.
In December 2021 Fionnuala McCormack finished fifth in the Valencia Marathon in 2:23.58 – all of which puts into perspective the magnitude of Sinéad’s wonderful achievement today.
It is an amazing end to 2022 for the Mayo AC member and follows her 5th place in this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham when she ran 2:31.06.
Valencia has been a happy hunting ground for Sinéad- she ran a half marathon PB 71:40 there in March 2018 before going on to run 68:50 in Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon in 2020.
The Melbourne based Belmullet native has represented her adopted Australia in recent years.
Valencia women’s race winner Amane Beriso Shankule upstaged world 10,000m champion Letesenbet Gidey to take a surprise win in Valencia.
Beriso won in 2:14:58 to put her third in the all-time list behind Kosgei and another Kenyan, Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir.
Kelvin Kiptum (KEN) won the men’s race in a fast 2:01:53. The top 9 finished under 2:06.
