Tomita and Batt-Doyle Claim Gold Coast Half Marathon Titles as Records Tumble

Japan’s Shumpei Tomita and Australia’s Isobel Batt-Doyle claimed the China Airlines Half Marathon titles at the Gold Coast on Friday, with both records and reputations on the line in front of a field of roughly 11,000 runners. Tomita stopped the clock at 1:00:52 to smash the men’s course record, while Batt-Doyle secured her maiden Gold Coast Half Marathon crown in 1:07:29 with a front-running display.

Gold Coast Half Marathon: Top 3 – Men’s Half Marathon

Place	Runner	Country	Time
1	Shumpei Tomita	Japan	1:00:52
2	Edward Marks	Australia	1:00:57
3	Kazuto Kawabata	Japan	1:01:16

Tomita’s winning time took 16 seconds off the previous course record set by Andy Buchanan in 2025, and made him the first international athlete to win the men’s race since 2017. Australia’s Edward Marks pushed him all the way, sprinting away from the chasing pack in the closing kilometre before Tomita responded to snatch victory, with just five seconds separating the pair at the line in what was Marks’s first ever half marathon. Japan’s Kazuto Kawabata claimed third in 1:01:16.

Top 3 – Women’s Half Marathon

Place	Runner	Country	Time
1	Isobel Batt-Doyle	Australia	1:07:29
2	Rino Goshima	Japan	1:08:50
3	Caitlin Scott	Australia	1:09:08

Batt-Doyle’s winning time landed just 12 seconds outside the Australian half marathon record she herself set in Japan last year, making it the second-fastest time ever recorded on Australian soil and the fastest by an Australian woman on home roads. Japan’s Rino Goshima was second in 1:08:50 on her first visit to the Gold Coast, while South Australia’s Caitlin Scott, runner-up in last year’s race, rounded out the podium in third.

“I got a bit of a stitch on the course.”

Isobel Batt-Doyle

Batt-Doyle said afterwards that while she was disappointed not to walk away with the record, winning was always the main goal for the day, and that cool, calm conditions helped her front-running approach pay off. Elsewhere in the field, Australian Paralympian and world champion Michael Roeger set a new T46 half marathon world record of 1:03:18, finishing 19th outright among the full able-bodied field.

With the half marathon titles settled, attention on the Gold Coast now turns to the weekend’s marathon and wheelchair marathon fields, as the four-day event continues to draw competitors from across Australia and around the world.

Related reading: Sydney Half Marathon 2026 Results: Do Canto and Nordberg Win NSW Titles.