Izzi Batt-Doyle is the fastest Australian woman ever over the marathon. The South Australian ran 2:20:38 to finish sixth at the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. That took 46 seconds off the national record Jess Stenson set in Valencia ten months ago, and makes Batt-Doyle the first Australian woman to go under 2:21.
It was a personal best by 2:21. Her previous best was the 2:22:59 she ran for 8th in Valencia in December 2024.
The performance adds to her Australian record on the roads at 10km (30:44) and Half Marathon (67:17).
The numbers
- 3:20/km average. 2:20:38 works out to 3:20.0 per kilometre over 42.195km.
- Negative split. She went through halfway in 1:10:29 and ran the second half in 1:10:09, 20 seconds quicker.
- An 11-second window. Every 5km segment fell between 16:36 and 16:47.
- Fastest when it hurt most. Her quickest 5km was 35–40km, in 16:36. She covered the final 2.195km in 7:07, about 3:15/km, the fastest stretch of the race.
That pacing is the reverse of the record she has just taken. Stenson’s Valencia run had 5km splits between 16:41 and 16:52, with a 70:37 first half and a 70:47 second half. Batt-Doyle ran 5 seconds quicker at both ends of that range and came home faster than she went out.
A record that won’t sit still
Lisa Ondieki’s 2:23:51 from Osaka in 1988 lasted until Benita Willis ran 2:22:36 in Chicago in 2006. Sinead Diver then broke Willis’ 16-year-old mark in Valencia in December 2022, running 2:21:34. Stenson lowered it to 2:21:24 on the same course in December 2025. After standing still for 16 years, the record has now fallen three times in under four years. The latest came 20 years after Willis set the record on the same Chicago streets.
From debut to 2:20
Batt-Doyle made her marathon debut in Melbourne in October 2022, running 2:28:10, which was then the fastest debut by an Australian woman. She has now taken 7:32 off that time. She already held the road records below the marathon. In February 2025 she broke Kerryn McCann’s 2000 half marathon record with 67:17 in Japan. In May that year she lowered her own 10km road record to 30:44 in Tokyo.
Australia’s fastest marathon women: all-time top 10
| # | Time | Athlete | Venue | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2:20:38 | Isobel Batt-Doyle | Chicago | 2026 |
| 2 | 2:21:24 | Jessica Stenson | Valencia | 2025 |
| 3 | 2:21:34 | Sinead Diver | Valencia | 2022 |
| 4 | 2:22:36 | Benita Willis | Chicago | 2006 |
| 5 | 2:23:08 | Genevieve Gregson | Valencia | 2023 |
| 6 | 2:23:15 | Lisa Weightman | Osaka | 2023 |
| 7 | 2:23:51 | Lisa Ondieki | Osaka | 1988 |
| 8 | 2:24:53 | Leanne Pompeani | Nagoya | 2025 |
| 9 | 2:25:10 | Eloise Wellings | Nagoya | 2022 |
| 10 | 2:25:51 | Nickey Carroll | London | 1999 |
What the list tells us
- Seven of the ten marks have been set since 2022. Only Willis, Ondieki and Carroll pre-date the super-shoe era.
- Valencia accounts for three; Chicago, Osaka and Nagoya for two each.
- None was set in Australia. Pompeani’s 2:24:47 in Sydney last year was the fastest marathon by an Australian woman at home, but is not legal for record purposes due to the net downhill of the course
- 5:13 separates first and tenth, and the top three all came in the past four years.
