A couple of long-standing race records could be re-set by class men’s and women’s fields in the 2023 ASICS Half Marathon on Saturday 1 July on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

And, given the stellar calibre of both fields, the setting of new national marks over the 21.1km distance is not out of the question.

2023 Women’s Race

This year’s ASICS Half Marathon could well be the hottest ever contested with an American on a mission and two of the other front runners using the event as a final shakedown ahead of World Athletics Championships appearances in Budapest in August.

Keira D’Amato will jet in from the United States and will likely lead the field out after announcing her desire to lower the current USA half marathon record of 1:06:52, given the right conditions.

The thirty-eight-year-old is also the former US women’s marathon record holder (2:19:12 set at the 2022 Houston Marathon) and has already run a minute and a pinch below Lisa Weightman’s 13-year-old Gold Coast half marathon record mark of 1:09:00 with a 1:07:55 personal best at Hardeeville, South Carolina in 2021.

And D’Amato will have just the right calibre of competition to push her along.

Victoria’s Sarah Klein and South Australian Olympian Izzi Batt-Doyle have both been selected to run the marathon at the World Champs in the Hungarian capital and will lean on the Gold Coast half distance race to give them a decent form check in the lead up.

The 37-year-old Klein has competed on the Gold Coast many times since taking out the Southern Cross University 10km Run back in 2008 and will be hoping the familiarity of the streetscape will deliver the preparation she is looking for while the Nic Bideau-coached Batt-Doyle is on the charge with her 1:09:27 best time set at the Marugame Half Marathon in Japan earlier this year.

Australia’s Tokyo 2020 Olympian and 2018 World Half Marathon Championships representative Ellie Pashley’s PB is just outside the race record at 1:09:14 and she’ll also be right in the mix.

Three-time Southern Cross University 10km champion and current titleholder, Canberran Leanne Pompeani will take on the 21.1km distance once again and must be a chance given that she is another who knows the course like the back of her hand and her 2021 half marathon PB of 1:10:47 deserves respect.

In 2022 Pompeani captured virtually every major 10-kilometre race in Australia, including the national title at the Zatopek meeting in Melbourne, so while a half marathon might seem a stretch on paper, her flexibility over recent years suggests a podium finish is not out of the question.

And there’s an international mystery to be solved.

Japanese runners have taken this event 16 times since 1989 but have curiously been devoid of wins since Yoko Nishimi’s victory in 2008.

But this year there are four women from the Land of the Rising Sun who think that’s way too long and who’ll line up on the front row to give redemption and national pride a red-hot go this year.

Kaede Kawamura, Chiharu Ikeda and Yuki Nakamura are all aged in their 20s, and all have recent form over the distance.

They all boast sub-1:11s while Misaki Hayashida (27) will be keen to lower the 1:11:04 she set in February this year at Yamaguchi.

All deserve serious consideration as potential 2023 ASICS Half Marathon champions.

2023 Men’s Race

Kenyan Benson Masya’s 1992 ASICS Gold Coast Half Marathon race record of 1:01:16 has grown old. So too has the Australian all-comers record of 1:01:11 set by Queenslander Pat Carroll in Sydney in 1994.

That’s the opinion of more than a few of the gun runners lining up to lower them both, including the top seeded Brett Robinson who carries into the race the Australian national record over the distance of 59:57.

Robinson set that mark at the Marugame Half Marathon in Japan in 2020 and he will be keen to lower it again on the fast streets of the Gold Coast.

He’s also the fastest Australian ever over the 30km road and marathon distances – both set at the Fukuoka Marathon in December last year – so history and form are with him heading into the Gold Coast event.

But Japan’s Keijiro Mogi will be keen to spoil any Robinson party for one.

Mogi (27) set a personal best of 1:00:33 at Yamaguchi in February this year to hit form over this distance right when it counts.

He’ll be joined on the start line by young 21-year-old compatriots Kazusa Takanuma and Jin Yuasa who will be keen to stick with Robinson and Mogi all the way.

Takanuma has a 1:03:35 PB under his belt from 2022 while Yuasa will bring particularly fine form after running a 1:02:35 at Sagamihara, Japan in May this year.

Aussie 1500m specialist Ryan Gregson (33) will line up for his second career half marathon after debuting in Launceston on June 11 while the 41-year-old elder statesman of the front row Ben St Lawrence brings the PB of 1:02:51 into the race that he set back in 2012 and he is hoping to give the Australian M40+ half marathon record of 1:04:33 set by Steve Moneghetti a shake.

Twenty-one-year-old Victorian Seth O’Donnell notched a 1:03:50 at the 2022 Melbourne Half Marathon and must fancy his chances on the back of that run while former soccer midfielder, Victoria’s Andre Waring (PB 1:04:16), is also likely to be in the mix.

South Australia’s Adrian Potter and one of New Zealand’s leading endurance talents Oska Inkster-Baynes could stage their own blanket finish if their near identical 1:04:40s PBs are anything to go by.

The event

The 2023 Gold Coast Marathon race weekend will feature the Gold Coast Marathon, CPL Wheelchair Marathon, ASICS Half Marathon, Southern Cross University 10km Run, CPL Wheelchair 10km, Gold Coast Airport 5km Fun Run and the Health and Wellbeing Queensland 2km and 4km Junior Dashes.

The Gold Coast Double 63.3km event – contested by runners competing in both Saturday’s half marathon and Sunday’s full marathon – is also on the program.

The Gold Coast Marathon is organised by Events Management Queensland and is proudly supported by the Queensland Government, through Tourism and Events Queensland, and features on the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar.

Events Management Queensland acknowledges and pays respect to the Kombumerri people of the Yugambeh language region, the Saltwater People of the Gold Coast, as the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which we invite and welcome participants from across the globe to experience our events.

People wanting detailed information on the 2023 Gold Coast Marathon events can visit www.goldcoastmarathon.com.au.

Men’s Elite Field

Brett Robinson (AUS)	PB: 59:57
Keijiro Mogi (JPN)	PB: 1:00:33
Jin Yuasa (JPN)	PB: 1:02:35
Ben St Lawrence (AUS)	PB: 1:02:51
Kazusa Takanuma (JPN)	PB: 1:03:35
Seth O’Donnell (AUS)	PB: 1:03:50
Andre Waring (AUS)	PB: 1:04:16
Ryan Gregson (AUS)	PB: 1:04:46
Adrian Potter (AUS)	PB: 1:04:46
Oska Inkster-Baynes (NZL)	PB: 1:04:48
Bailey Murzecki-Hince (AUS)	PB: 1:05:04
Toby Menday (AUS)	PB: 1:05:09
Sam Clifford (AUS)	PB: 1:05:16
Cameron Avery (NZL)	PB: 1:05:20
Arron Spiessberger-Parker (AUS)	Debut

 

Women’s Elite Field

Keira D’Amato (USA)	PB: 1:07:55
Ellie Pashley (AUS)	PB: 1:09:14
Isobel Batt-Doyle (AUS)	PB: 1:09:27
Kaede Kawamura (JPN)	PB: 1:10:17
Chiharu Ikeda (JPN)	PB: 1:10:37
Leanne Pompeani (AUS)	PB: 1:10:47
Yuki Nakamura (JPN)	PB: 1:10:48
Misaki Hayashida (JPN)	PB: 1:11:04
Camille French (NZL)	PB: 1:11:19
Tara Palm (AUS)	PB: 1:11:27
Virginia McCormick (AUS)	PB: 1:12:23
Sarah Klein (AUS)	PB: 1:12:27
Tennille Ellis (AUS)	PB: 1:14:11
Rochelle Thorpe (AUS)	PB: 1:15:26
Gemma Maini (AUS)	Debut