athsSTATS

Athletics statistics | International results & advance Livestream details for events | Tracking qualification for Global events | Oz/NZ/Oceania focus

[athsSTATS @athsstats]

Your performance for May 2026?

Some context:
- 4x400m time was 6th fastest world all-time
- Nketia's time =7th fastest 100m ever, all conditions
- Strintzos HM was fastest in Australia
- five 1500m women sub-4 in same race – only 3rd time by a country this century

[athsSTATS @athsstats]

The review of last season continues ... May 2026
World Relay Championships kicks off the month of May, and Australia’s relay selectors and strategists must have had some interesting conversations prior. At some stage, they decided to try and qualify all six teams for the 2027 World Championships – but then how to balance the talent across the teams, and still get the results?
Going into the championships, the only team ranked in the world top 10 was the 4x400m mixed team. And that team (Sherman, Beer, Reynolds, Gross) got things off to a cracking start with an Area Record (3:10.57) for third and qualifying through to the final. Beer's 49.52 split making her only the 3rd Australian woman with a sub-50 split.
Then the men’s 4x100m (Kennedy, Azzopardi, Ius, Browning) finished third ahead of Jamaica no less, to grab a finals spot in an equal Area Record time of 37.87.
A good first day, two teams qualified and two AR’s but was anyone expecting what we then saw in the men’s 4x400m? We now know Luke van Ratingen’s extraordinary starting leg of 44.51 benefitted from the fact the officials had drawn the starting line in the wrong spot, giving Australia some metres advantage. What then ensued was a fantastic race between Australia and home favourite Botswana. Australia wins in 2:57.30, but for the second time the team (van Ratingen, Holder, Hunt, Murphy) would celebrate a new Oceania record, when unbeknownst to them, the record would not count – the time in the results tagged with the rarely seen “(SD)” … short distance.
So onto Day 2, the teams in the finals have WCH27 qualification, the others need to finish top 2 in their qualifying round heat. The 4x100m mixed team (Gordon, Stallan, Law, Mannix-Power) runs the same time as yesterday (40.78) to win its heat, so qualifies for WCH27. The women’s 4x400m team (Dixon, Yukich, Carli, Beer) faced some tough competition, lead at 800m and then managed to hold on for second to also qualify (3:26.92). The women’s 4x100m team (Lane, Lewis, Hanlon, Harris) carry the added pressure of having dropped in the baton on the first day, but came together to execute superbly and take the win in their heat (42.88).
This meant all six Australian teams qualified through to the 2027 World Championships – the only country to achieve that feat in Botswana.
In the finals the 4x400m mixed team (Sherman, Gross, Hunt, Loizou) finished 7th with 3:13.07, and the 4x100m men showed once again they were not far off the world’s best, with 4th in 38.00.
The Men’s 4x400m team then provided a perfect conclusion, running splits of: Van Ratingen (44.86), Holder (43.12 – 9th fastest split world all-time), Reynolds (43.43 – fastest split in history for someone with PB over 45 secs), Murphy (43.79) for 2:55.40 AR (4th fastest country ever, 6th fastest time ever), and fastest time ever to win bronze.
The new season of the Diamond League got underway. Celebrating ten years on the Diamond League circuit were Linden Hall (started May-16) and Eleanor Patterson (Jul-16) with Kurtis Marschall just a year behind (Jul-17).
In Shanghai, the remarkable progression of Australia's middle-distance women is on show, with five Australians going sub-4 minutes in the 1500m in the same race. This century only three countries had achieved such a feat (and only Soviet Union and China prior to that). Shanghai also see PBs for Luke Boyes, Cara Feain-Ryan, Abbey Caldwell and Seth O’Donnell (3rd Australian sub 7:30 in the 3000m).
A week later in Xiamen, Caldwell has her first DL win in the 1500m. Towards the end of the month at the Rabat DL, Nina Kennedy equals Sally Pearson’s record of 10 DL wins and Sarah Billings runs an 800m PB and achieves the Commonwealth Games qualifier on the last possible day.
This month also saw the Oceania Championships in Darwin, with Aidan Murphy taking the 200m/400m double – almost breaking the 400m National Record with 44.44, and with Tom Reynolds 44.69, first time two Australians sub-45 in same race, with van Ratingen (45.04) almost making it three. Brooke Buschkuehl (6.70m) and Delta Amidzovski (6.69m) have another fascinating competition and Desleigh Owusu (13.64m) has to deal with some domestic competition in the triple jump, against Izobelle Louison-Roe (13.32m) and Tiana Boras (13.30m).
In the NCAA at the Big Ten Championships, Eddie Nketia runs an incredible, very windy 9.74 (+5.6), equal 7th fastest time in the World ever, all conditions. Later in the month at Regionals he runs a wind-legal PB of 10.06 (+1.2) to qualify for Nationals, as does Hayley Kitching with a win in her 800m heat in 1:59.15.
At the end of the month, Cameron Myers decides to test his speed and drops a 1:44.05 800m win in Germany, while Haftu Strintzos tests his speed over a longer distance, running the fastest half marathon seen in Australia, 60:41 in Launceston.
Tough choice picking the months highlight:
🔸4x400m men, AR and 6th fastest world all-time
🔸Eddie Nketia , equal 7th fastest 100m ever, all conditions
🔸Haftu Strintzos, fastest Half Marathon in Australia
🔸The five 1500m women, all sub-4 in same race – only 3rdtime by a country this century

[athsSTATS @athsstats]

@gregblood @MitchellGlenn Agree - its unfortunate how most athletes don't have a retirement moment/event that can then be a celebration of their careers

[TrackAthletes.au @TrackAthletesAU]

As well as Bec Henderson's World Record🔥, the All Japan🇯🇵 Race Walking meet also saw:

🔸 Elizabeth McMillen win the Half Marathon with an Australian best & under the WCH27 standard

🔸Australian bests in the men's Marathon: Rhydian Crowley & Half Marathon: Kyle Swan

[TrackAthletes.au @TrackAthletesAU]

🔥WOW🔥World Record🔥

Bec Henderson becomes just the 3rd Australian🇦🇺 this century to set a senior athletics World Record

Henderson race walked the marathon in 3:14:52, taking 19 seconds off the previous record, at the All Japan Race Walking meet held in Takahata🇯🇵

👏👏👏

[TrackAthletes.au @TrackAthletesAU]

Full list of Australians in the Top 10 at the World Major Marathons since 2006

(let us know if we missed any)

[TrackAthletes.au @TrackAthletesAU]

The top placed Australians🇦🇺 at the World Major Marathons since their inception in 2006

Izzi Batt-Doyle becomes just the 5th Australian to finish in the top 6, after her Chicago🇺🇸 performance.

The full list in comments ...

[TrackAthletes.au @TrackAthletesAU]

This Sunday we have:

Lauren Ryan racing the Valencia Half Marathon Sunday
🔗 https://t.co/wpvpuAcke9

Australian 10km Road Championship on the fast Burnie 10 course
🔗 https://t.co/7HKqQBEd44

Could we see every Australian major road racing record broken this year?

[Australian Athletics @AustralianAths]

What if it works out? 💭🥇

It’s the simple question that took Paralympian Rhiannon Clarke from the brink of retirement to her first international gold medal in the space of six months.

🗞️🗞️https://t.co/EgHeqstEX4

#AthleticsNation #HeatCheck

[TrackAthletes.au @TrackAthletesAU]

Australian results from NCAA XC racing

Many took the chance to trial the National XC course in Indiana: Bailey Habler finishes strongly, from 10th to 6th in the last km & Ben Thomas wins the 'white' race

Div II athlete Flynn Pumpa runs his second sub-24 min race for 4th

[athsSTATS @athsstats]

the 4x400m team gets the gog on this site - the 4x1 was fav on the other site ... very close!

[athsSTATS @athsstats]

On reflection, some incredible Australian relay success this year

🔸 GOLD World XC Championships
🔸 BRONZE World Relays 4x4 Men, 6th fastest time ever
🔸 GOLD Comm. Games, 4x1 men
🔸 World Road 5km team, beating Kenya for SILVER

Which one was your favourite?

[fast8trackclub @fast8trackclub]

Looking at #800m split data from the Big 5 (a thread) and what we can learn

[athsSTATS @athsstats]

Bit of a correction - Batt-Doyle's put Australia =16th

But still behind GERMANY!

1 2:09:56 Ruth CHEPNGETICH KEN
2 2:10:51 Fotyen TESFAY ETH
3 2:13:44 Sifan HASSAN NED
4 2:15:25 Paula RADCLIFFE GBR
5 2:17:45 Lonah Chemtai SALPETER ISR
6 2:18:03 Magdalena SHAURI TAN
7 2:18:04 Joan Chelimo MELLY ROU
8 2:18:26 Stella CHESANG UGA
9 2:18:29 Emily SISSON USA
10 2:18:59 Honami MAEDA JPN
11 2:19:19 Irina MIKITENKO GER
12 2:19:39 Yingjie SUN CHN
13 2:19:52 Helalia JOHANNES NAM
14 2:20:02 Eunice Chebichii CHUMBA BRN
15 2:20:29 Nazret WELDU ERI
16 2:20:38 Chloé HERBIET BEL
16 2:20:38 Isobel BATT-DOYLE AUS
..
20 2:21:01 Majida MAAYOUF MAR
21 2:21:06 Ingrid KRISTIANSEN NOR
..
23 2:22:22 Glenrose XABA RSA

[athsSTATS @athsstats]

Izzi Batt-Doyle’s fantastic new Area Record of 2:20:38 at the Chicago Marathon moves the Australian record up to 18th on the list of country records.

Which one of these countries has a faster women’s marathon record?

[TrackAthletes.au @TrackAthletesAU]

Australian results from weekend's NCAA cross country racing

At Nuttycombe, so many quality teams competing, if an athlete's team finished in top 20 good chance they could go to Nationals (max 31 teams)

Top 4 non-qualified athletes from 9 regional events also qualify

[TrackAthletes.au @TrackAthletesAU]

Izzi Batt-Doyle🇦🇺 breaks the Area Record at the Chicago Marathon🇺🇸, finishing sixth in 2:20:38

Takes 46 seconds off Jess Stenson’s record and grabs a 2027 World Championships qualifier as well

[TrackAthletes.au @TrackAthletesAU]

🔥 WOW 🔥

New Area Record to Izzi Batt-Doyle in the Chicago Marathon, finishing 6th in 2:20:38

Incredibly consistent 5km splits:
16:46
16:42
16:40
16:40
(half 70:29)
16:37
16:43
16:47
16:36
last 2.2km 7:07
(second half 70:09)

Also 2027 World Championships qualifier.

[Andy Zaltzman @ZaltzCricket]

STAT ALERT: Renshaw's 190 the only 50+ score in either 1st innings - the highest score in Test history by a player who has made the only 50+ score in combined 1st innings (beating a record set at MCG in Jan 1898, when Clem Hill's 188 was the only 50+ in either 1st inns). #SAvAUS

[Australian Athletics @AustralianAths]

Izzi Batt-Doyle is now the Australian record holder in the women’s marathon.

Doyle broke the record finishing sixth in the Chicago Marathon, with a time of 2:20:38, surpassing Jess Stenson’s record of 2:21:24