Melbourne University Athletics Club

Weightman wins big at MCG

2013 Melbourne Marathon

MUAC athlete and 2012 London Olympian Lisa Weightman knocked six minutes off the Medibank Melbourne Marathon female race record and clocked a personal best time of 2:26.05 on her way to a historic win. The time makes Weightman the fastest Australian on home soil and fifth on the all time list.

Weightman’s pre-race plan stood up strong even when Kenyan Eunice Kales developed a 90 second lead at the 25km mark. Racing alongside her were husband and MUAC member, Lachlan Macarthur and MUAC teammates Alex van der Meer and Zac Newman.

“I was certainly the most nervous I’ve ever been before a race. I think I put a fair bit of pressure on myself to run well because it was my home race and for the first time I ran with the expectation of victory.

“It was just amazing to run into the ‘G with my family there. The best feeling was crossing the line and my nephew (Thomas, 7) came rushing up to me and gave me a huge hug,” Weightman said.

Along with the $35,000 pay day Weightman was crowned the female Victorian Marathon Champion for 2013.

Zac Newman surged away from the Weightman group after halfway to take 8th place in the race, in 2:25:06, and win Silver in the Victorian Marathon Championships. Training through the winter with Weightman and Macurthur clearly paid dividends for Newman as he came home strongly over the last 10km to be the third Australian home in Australia’s biggest marathon.

Alex van der Meer drove the pace hard in the Weightman group, keep Kales in range, even as she surged through the middle of the race. After nearly 40km of hard work was done, he coasted in to finish 14th.

Kerrin Rattray, 5 days after entering the race, ran a very impressive 2:55:57, most of it spent smiling. His training and travel partner Claire Boulange ran an amazing race to be 59th woman home in 3:18:23. Dion Houtman fought hard through the second half of the race to claim a substantial PB, running 3:09:14. Gen Blanch took to marathon running like a natural, clocking a very impressive 3:39:46. Jaime Cascajares gun time of 3:01:43 is just outside the three hour mark, but on chip times he’s run 2:59:54, just dipping under the mark.

Marathon

Joel Fitzgerald 2:35:25

Carsten Murawski 2:59:30

Frank Cianciio 3:51:19

Half Marathon

Tim Thomas 1:22:30

Melissa Natasha 1:32:26

Chung Wai 1:38:55

David Sullivan 1:46:04

10km

James Maguire 35:38

Karsten Hollander 36:52