Off and racing: Canberra Times marathon 2023

The Canberra Times Marathon Festival 2023 start

Canberra runners came out as a force on Sunday morning, braving the cold and cloudy skies to hit the pavement.

The Canberra Times marathon saw thousands race around the lake in high spirits, competing across five distances.

For the first time, runners could compete a marathon distance of 42.2 kilometres, along with the half marathon 21.1 kilometres.

Women's marathon winner Cassie Little from Melbourne

Start of the 2km kids' dash

Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong

Start of the 2 km kids' dash

Start of the 2 km kids' dash

Start of the 2 km kids' dash

Canberra Times Marathon. 5.4 km finalists Capella Maguire from Queanbeyan (3rd), Zoe Melhuish from Hughes (1st), and Rachel Waters from Curtin (2nd). Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong

Women's marathon winner Cassie Little from Melbourne

Women's marathon winner Cassie Little from Melbourne

Bella O'Grady, centre, along with her brother Xavier's friends Bas Braham, Jasper Walsh, Ryan Graham, and Hugo Heanly from Sydney have raised over $600,000 for the Centenary Institute

Runner-up in the women's marathon Courtney Hopkins

Start of the 2km kids' dash

Start of the 2km kids' dash

Start of the 2km kids' dash

Start of the 2km kids' dash

There is also a 10-kilometre and 5.4-kilometre option. Plus, the kids got to have fun running and walking two kilometres.

By 8.30am, all runners had headed off around the lake.

As of 9am, nearly $139,000 had been raised for charity. The biggest charity winner was for Friends of Femili PNG, which had raised more than $30,000.

Stephen Howes had raised $10,000 for Femili PNG, which his profile said was a domestic violence charity in Papua New Guinea.

Ten-year-old Saleena Rambler was the first girl to cross the finish line in the two-kilometre children's race. Her time was seven minutes and 23 seconds.

She has been practicing by running sometimes in the morning.

Winner of the female 2km kids' dash Saleena Ramboer, 10, from Woden.

"It feels good to win, it's worth the work that you put in," Saleena said.

"It felt good, there was a little hill though and that was sort of hard."

She said her advice for other children wanting to race was "when you're tired just keep pushing because when you finish, you'll know it was worth the effort".

Canberra Times Marathon. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong

Leaderboards

Marathon female

1. Cassie Little, 2:45:00
2. Courtney Hopkins, 2:51:27
3. Amelia Spring, 3:05:14

Marathon male

1. Harry Smithers, 2:28:24
2. Daniel Carson, 2:29:35
3. Matt Johnsen, 2:29:48

Marathon agender

1. Wren Browne, 4:40:59
2. Budiaman Tang, 5:36:16

Half-marathon female

1. Claire Ashworth, 1:21:01
2. Steph Kelly, 1:22:12
3. Helena Hayes, 1:24:00

Half-marathon male

1. Ben Kelly, 1:08:17
2. Jarrod Osborne, 1:09:49
3. Michael Daly, 1:10:34

Half-marathon agender

1. Matt Lambert, 1:36:09
2. Jake Bunday, 1:51:24

10km female

1. Marnie Ponton, 34:56
2. Rachel McCormick, 36:18
3. Amelia Gorman, 37:51

10km male

1. Russell Dessaix-Chin, 32:31
2. Jared Kahlefeldt, 33:36
3. Louis Donovan, 33:53

10km agender

1. Crys Clitheroe, 59:02
2. Trung Bui, 1:20:53

5.4km female

1. Zoe Melhuish, 19:41
2. Rachel Walters, 20:43
3. Capella Maguire, 21:27

5.4km male

1. Ryan Binsik, 17:23
2. Nicholas Odgers, 18:10
3. Daniel Randall, 18:18

2km girls

1. Saleena Ramboer, 7:23
2. Tanamai Szirom, 7:41
3. Eliza Sinclair, 7:45

2km boys

1. Archer Stow, 7:05
2. Arthur Giason, 7:10
3. Thomas Naden, 7:12
   

More to come.

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