The Tassal Group Airlie Beach Marathon Festival was held over the weekend with almost 500 runners pounding the footpaths and boardwalk around the foreshore.
The competitors came from all over Australia and further afield with entries from New Zealand, Scotland, and the USA.
The McDonald’s Magic Mile was the enticer on Saturday afternoon with Billy Grogan winning the men’s race and Claire Ashworth taking the cash in the women’s category.
The North Queensland Marathon Championship was the marquee event for the meet and was won by local Whitsunday Running Club member Viv Compton who broke her previous record in a time of 3:22:02.
The defending men’s champion, Justin Gibbs retained his title in a much-improved time of 2:47:40.
We had our first ever wheelchair entry this year with Chris ‘Wheelsie’ Keillor from Western Australia completing the course in a record time of 5:33:58 using a standard wheelchair.
The ‘boutique marathon’ attracted a larger field than last year and included some interesting personalities all running for various reasons.
The Tassal Group Half Marathon also saw the lady’s record broken by Canberra runner Claire Ashworth in 1:22:27.
The men’s winner was a surprise entry by Tom Ferrington from Scotland who finished just outside the record in 1:18:36.
The 2km boy’s section was won by Banjor Moser followed by Don Vinh Algie and Lucas Appleton.
The girl’s section winner was Willow Moser with Isabella Gomez second and Penelope Shields third.
The 1km girl’s category was won by Ella Maddock with runner up Alihra Karon and Aria Crawford. The boys were led home by Billy Appleton then James Gibbs and Oliver Bright.
The Event Manager, Tim McQuoid-Mason said that:
“The results achieved to today were very impressive as the south easter was howling through at about 25knotts and despite that there were two new records set by Liv Compton and Claire Ashworth.
It was great to see the community support with 40 marshals out on the course. Thank you to all the volunteers, runners, and the community for sharing the foreshore with us.”
Whitsunday Running Club members in 10km
Mascot Race
Marathon runners
Justin Gibbs CSM
Tom Ferrington half winner from Scotland
Support gang
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