Australian marathon supermum Jessica Stenson has run a Paris 2024 qualifier and obliterated her personal best just six months after giving birth to her second child.
The Commonwealth Games marathon gold medallist, a mother-of-two after giving birth to her daughter on September 14, clocked 2:23:59 in South Korea's Daegu Marathon on Sunday.
The 36-year-old smashed the 2:26:50 Olympic entry standard and shattered her 2:25:15 personal best, which she had set just under two years after giving birth to her son.
READ MORE: I watched Olympic rowers train. They left me stunned
READ MORE: Piastri fumes at rival's 'very dangerous' act
READ MORE: 'High drama': Manly claims 'outrageous' try in upset win
Stenson became the sixth Australian woman to have nailed the Olympic entry standard since the opening of the qualification window on November 1, 2022. The window will close on April 30.
Sinead Diver (2:21:34), Genevieve Gregson (2:23:08), Lisa Weightman (2:23:15), Izzi Batt-Doyle (2:23:27), Stenson (2:23:59) and Eloise Wellings (2:25:47) have all beaten the qualification time comfortably.
However, Australia can take no more than three marathon women to the Paris Games — an extremely difficult reality facing the athletes and Athletics Australia selectors.
Will the women with the three fastest times snap up tickets to Paris? Well, not necessarily.
Diver, the Australian women's marathon record holder, doesn't think it's so simple.
"When the times are that close it's not going to come down to the times, I think," Diver told Wide World of Sports in December last year.
"It's going to be a really, really tough job for them [the selectors]."
Diver spoke to WWOS following the Valencia Marathon, in which Gregson, Batt-Doyle, Weightman and Wellings all smoked the entry standard.
Paris 2024 Australian women marathon qualifiers (three spots available)
Sinead Diver 2:21:34
Genevieve Gregson 2:23:08
Lisa Weightman 2:23:15
Izzi Batt-Doyle 2:23:27
Jessica Stenson 2:23:59
Eloise Wellings 2:25:47
https://twitter.com/AthsAust/status/1776800196153975160
Speaking to WWOS for the same piece in December, Stenson admitted the bar had been "set incredibly high".
"So the official qualifying time is 2:26:50 and I thought that would be something that I would set my sights on … but knowing now that I would have to run under 2:23:00, which would be a two-minute-plus PB [personal best], and also within seven months of giving birth, I'm just not sure if it's physically or mentally or logistically possible," Stenson said.
"But I'm willing to have a go at working towards the fitness to put myself in the position to run a PB marathon."
Although Stenson didn't "run under 2:23:00", she absolutely put herself in contention for Paris 2024 selection in Daegu on Sunday.
Crucially, the marathon champion from the South Australian town of Naracoorte has run a qualifier and, critically, her time of 2:23:59 is not far from those of Gregson, Weightman and Batt-Doyle.
It's also important to note that time is not the only factor weighed up by selectors; a significant consideration is how they've fared at prior major championships.
Stenson, a marathoner at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics, spoke to WWOS about her running plans in March last year, after announcing she had fallen pregnant with her second child.
"I'm just going to maintain a really open mind and know that if I don't get the opportunity to chase that Paris OIympic goal, there's … the LA Olympics in 2028," she said.
Stenson kept an "open mind" and produced an amazing run.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.