Keira D’Amato breaks U.S. half-marathon file in Gold Coast, Australia

Virginia-based Keira D’Amato managed to knock 13 seconds off Emily Sisson‘s half marathon file on Saturday, working 1:06:13 for the win at Australia’s Gold Coast Marathon. The 2 American distance champs appear to be in a record-breaking duel, with 38-year-old D’Amato beforehand holding the American file within the marathon (2:19:12 on the 2022 Houston Marathon), till Sisson ran 2:18:29 to seize it on the 2022 Chicago Marathon.

Congrats @KeiraDAmato on breaking the U.S. girls’s half marathon file at present! It’s superior to be part of this period of U.S. girls’s distance working the place information are repeatedly bettering. Particularly spectacular contemplating your journey—benefit from the second Keira 😊

— Emily Sisson (@Em_Sisson) June 30, 2023

For now (not less than within the half-marathon), D’Amato is on prime, pulling off a speedy time regardless of a gruelling journey to Australia. After an issue with air-traffic management delayed flights in Washington early final week, D’Amato was pressured to go away a number of days late, land didn’t land in Australia till Thursday, two days later than deliberate. She had solely two days to regulate to the 14-hour time distinction and get race-ready.

Pleased to have lastly made it to the race, Sisson instructed The Washington Put up that she “didn’t really feel superior” whereas working, and had checked her watch however merely famous that she was working on tempo. D’Amato, a four-time all-American who returned to racing competitively in 2016 after a 10-year hiatus, broke the course file on the occasion in addition to setting the U.S. file–notably thrilling as a result of earlier within the week she had doubted if she’d even be capable to compete.

On Sunday morning in Australia, D’Amato was already again to coaching for her subsequent occasion–racing within the marathon on the world championships in Budapest this August, the place she’ll have her sights set on taking again that American file.