Buchanan clocks fastest split at Jells Park as Sandringham take titles

Australian marathon record holder Andy Buchanan continues his return to competition, clocking the fastest 6km split at Athletics Victoria’s Jells Park Relays.

Buchanan, 35, set the Australian marathon record of 2:06:22 in December 2024 but until last weekend hadn’t raced since August 2025. Today he demonstrated his cross country pedigree, running a swift 17 minutes, 16 seconds on a perfect autumn day at the traditional Jells Park venue.

Running the second leg for the Bendigo Region team, Buchanan’s mark was 21 seconds faster than Ed Marks, who comfortably won the opening leg by half a minute in 17:37, running away from the field over the second 3km lap.

Marks had clocked a swift 13:37 5km road victory around Albert Park in the opening round of the XCR series on Mother’s Day and is in PB form following a 27:54.98 10000m track performance in the US at the end of March.

Sandringham took out the race by two minutes, with their team averaging 18:34 across the six legs. Western Athletics and Glenhuntly claimed the minor places.

Fastest Splits

Junior Madison King clocked the fastest time of the day, 20:43, on the opening leg in the in women’s race, with former World Cross Country representative Georgia Hansen the second quickest, running 20:59 on the anchor leg.

Sandringham took line honours by 49 seconds ahead of Box Hill and Western Athletics. The Sandringham quintet averaged 21:49, with three of its runners in the top ten of the day.

Fastest Splits

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