South Australia’s Caitlin Adams has won the 2025 Melbourne Marathon in a time of 2 hours, 30 minutes and 26 seconds in her debut run over the 42.195km distance.
Paced by Jess Trengove through the early stages of the race 28-year-old Adams ran an even-paced race with halves of 75:07 and 75:19 to finish in 26th place across the line.
The performance places Adams 19th on the Australian all-time list.
Sarah Klein was second in 2:35:59 less than a month after contesting the World Championships in Tokyo, with Milly Clark running through the field for third in 2:37:40.
Jack Rayner defended his title in the men’s race, with an easy victory in 2:15:02, after being unwell the day prior to the race. After running through halfway in 66:42 with Japan’s Jo Fukuda (4th across the line in 2:17:58), Rayner pulled away for a one minute, 42 second victory.
“I started cramping at 23 kilometres so I was a little bit worried that was going to stop me in my tracks,” Rayner told The Age. “But luckily I got my brother to stop and get some salty water, so I think that kind of saved me.”
Steve McKenna, who negatively split 68:48/67:54, took second in 2:16:42, while Fraser Darcy was third in 2:17:38.
The best quality performances of the day came in the Half Marathon, where Haftu Strintzos (62:13) and Izzy Batt-Doyle (68:55) took line honours. Both spoke at the finish of their goals to break the Australian marathon record in Valencia in December.
Strintzos ran in a large lead pack that passed through 10km in 30:15 before pulling away by over a minute from national cross country champion Zach Facioni (63:21) in his debut over the distance. New Zealand’s Toby Gaulter, who was second in last month’s Run Prix 10km, was a second behind in third ahead of Brett Robinson (63:57), Jacob Cocks (63:59) and Stewart McSweyn (64:16).
Batt-Doyle was a convincing winner in the women’s race in a course record with a 49 second winning margin over New Zealand’s Georgia Grgec (69:44). Sinead Diver was third in just her second race since last year’s Olympics, clocking 70:56. Jenny Blundell (73:30) and Genevieve Gregson (73:47) were the next top finishers, the latter only 3 1/2 months after giving birth to her second child.
Adam Goddard was the runaway winner of the 10km, clocking 28:40 to win by over a minute from national junior cross country champion Yohanes Dagnaw (29:41) and Zayd Al Sayd (29:48).
Tokyo Olympian in the marathon Ellie Pashley returned to competition after the brith of her second child with victory in the women’s race in 33:41, with Stella Radford (34:12) and Tiana Cetta (34:59) claiming the minor places.
“To be honest, it’s a big confidence booster because I feel like it’s been hard to come back this time around, and I wasn’t sure where I was at,” Pashley told The Age.
“It was nice to get rid of the cobwebs.”
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