RT John – Runnerstribe.com
There are times when everything is right, and Hafto Strentzos and Izzy Pat Doyle made the most of one in Launceston on Sunday, each running the fastest half marathon ever run by an Australian on home soil.
Strintzos provided the headline performance in the men’s race, with the 26-year-old crossing the finish line in the Peppers Silo Half Marathon at the McGrath Launceston Running Festival in 1:00:41. The time set a new all-comers record in Australia, knocking off Andrew Buchanan’s 1:01:08 at last year’s Gold Coast Marathon by 27 seconds. Pat Doyle answered in the women’s race, where the national record holder won in a time of 1:08:46 to become the fastest Australian woman ever to cover the distance on home soil.
It was an advanced performance and not just a sit-and-kick. Strentzos surged to the front with more than half the race to go, then held off Brett Robinson over the final five kilometers to win by 41 seconds. Robinson, himself a previous Australian record holder at this distance, was not a rider, clocking a fast time of 1:01:22 per second. Japanese Jinya Ozaki took third place with a time of 1:01:27.
Strentzos kept his explanation simple. “I had a plan and I set out to implement it. It went well and I’m really happy,” he said.
He was quite direct about the circumstances. “I don’t think the conditions couldn’t have been better. I thought it might be a little windy, but it wasn’t. It’s a great place for it.”
There is a useful context for the achievement. The 1:00:41 is the fastest half marathon ever recorded in Australia, but it is not the outright Australian record. Jack Reiner reckons he ran 59:53 in Marugame, Japan in February. Sunday’s race was an all-comers’ record, the fastest time ever set on home soil, and fell just five seconds outside Strentzos’ personal best, the 1:00:36 he ran in Marugame last year. If we read these numbers together, it says a lot about how close he truly is to elite territory.
He was not the only one who rewrote the lists. Pat Doyle ran a tight race to win in a time of 1:08:46, a mark that also stands as the second-fastest half marathon ever run in the country by anyone.
“It was really exciting to come back to Launceston and see how the event developed,” Pat Doyle said. “I haven’t been here for a few years but I really loved it. The support on the track was great and the new finish line feels were great.”
A speed run was carried out through the festival. Edward Marks ran the 10km in 27:57 seconds, a second inside the course record and more than a minute behind national road record holder Sam Clifford, while Caitlin Scott equaled the women’s 10km record of 31:38 first set by Leanne Pompeani in 2023.
For Strentzos, whose journey to the forefront of Australian running began as a boy herding cattle in the Tigray Mountains, the morning was another sign on a steady upward trajectory. He had the plan, the terms and the legs. The record books did the rest.
Sources: Athletics Australia, World Athletics, Inside Athletics, The Examiner, Pulse Tasmania.
