Lisa, Jess or another? | A column by Len Johnson

What is it with the marathon. Seems like every December a platoon of Australians heads off to Spain and someone – or two – produces an Australian record.

Not just anywhere in Spain. Just as the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain, the marathon records stay mainly in Valencia. In extolling the simple virtues of running we often say, “It’s simple. Just lace up your shoes and head out the door.”

In the same way, we could say about the national marathon record: “It’s simple. Go to Valencia. Lace up your (super)shoes and head out the door.” Perfect conditions. Fast surface. Or just some form of alchemy we are yet to fully understand.

I seem to recall Deek saying once about his training with coach Pat Clohessy. “We’re not quite sure how, but it seems to work.” Quite. And so does going to Valencia to run the marathon.

Jess Stenson is the latest beneficiary of the magic that is Valencia. Last Sunday Stenson ran 2:21:24 in finishing fifth in the race, taking 10 seconds off the previous record 2:21:34 set by . . . checks notes . . . Sinead Diver in . . . notes again . . . Valencia two years earlier. With Andrew Buchanan’s men’s AR 2:06:22 last year, that makes three consecutive years of Australian records in the Spanish city.

Brett Robinson, whose record Buchanan broke, did his AR in Fukuoka in 2022. That was in line with a long tradition of Aussie excellence in the Japanese race. Derek Clayton and Rob de Castella set world records at ‘Fuk’. Going further back, Rod MacKinney became the first Australian sub-2:20 there in 1966.

Now, however, it is Valencia where one goes for a fast time. Ciudad del Running – city of running – the city styles itself. And it seems to be working. In addition to the two national records, four more of the 10 fastest times ever run by Australian women have been done in Valencia the past three years.

It’s nowhere near as pronounced on the men’s side. After Buchanan’s national record, next fastest by an Australian male is the 2:11:14 run by Thomas Do Canto last Sunday. That performance sits at number 57 on the men’s national all-time list.

Like the marathon, we’re taking a long time to get to the point here. The day after Valencia my phone pinged with an SMS from Brady, Moose and Crokes at the Inside Running Podcast. “Jess Stenson or Lisa O(ndieki) for greatest female marathoner of all-time,” they wanted to know.

My response? “I lean to Lisa. An Olympic silver is a pretty good tiebreaker.” But, I wondered, do the full career stats back up that inclination.

Who else might be considered? While the introduction of the women’s marathon to the world championships and Olympic Games rosters was too long delayed, one consequence was that the event was relatively mature by the time it was contested at the Helsinki world championships in 1983 and the Los Angeles Olympics the following year.

Grete Waitz won in Helsinki; Joan Benoit led home Waitz, Rosa Mota and Ingrid Kristiansen in LA. No-one would argue they were not much better marathoners -and all-round distance runners – than the first few men’s Olympic champions. No offence, Spiridon Louis.

That being so, it’s easier to compare Jess Stenson with Lisa Ondieki. But then there’s Kerryn McCann, Benita Willis and Lisa Weightman. McCann’s epic battle with Kenyan Hellen Cherono around the MCG to win her second Commonwealth Games gold medal is etched into millions of memories in the same way as Deek’s win over Juma Ikangaa in Brisbane in 1982.

And Benita Willis is almost certainly our best all-round female distance runner, with a world cross-country victory, a national record in eighth place of a world championship 10,000 metres and the one who broke Ondieki’s long-standing national record in the marathon.

Nonetheless, I’m comfortable with agreeing that it’s either Ondieki or Stenson as no.1. Valencia was Stenson’s 20th marathon; Ondieki’s career total was 24. Stenson ran her first in Nagoya in 2012, so she has a career-span (so far) of 13 years. Ondieki made her debut in1983 and ran her last at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, likewise 13 years.

Stenson has finished every one of her 20 marathons. Ondieki has seven ‘DNFs’ dotted through her 24 attempts. But each ran often enough in high-quality races to ignore that statistic.

When Ondieki ran 2:23:51 to win in Osaka in 1988, she set a world record of sorts. It was the fastest time recorded in a women-only marathon on and out-and-back or loop course. At the time, the world best was Kristiansen’s 2:21:06 set in London in 1985. It would be 13 years before any woman beat that mark, so Ondieki’s performance stands up well.

Ondieki also won two Commonwealth Games marathons – 1986 and 1990 – beating world-class opposition both times and running fast (2:26:07 and 2:25:28).

A course record win in New York in 1992, bouncing back from a disastrous ‘dnf’ at the Barcelona Olympics, was Ondieki’s best big-city performance. She was also second in New York and London twice, and third in NY once.

Stenson has an edge in world championship performances with an eleventh in Moscow in 2013 and ninth in London in 2017, both times in warm to very hot conditions. Ondieki’s only worlds saw a ‘dnf’ in Rome in 1987. She doesn’t match Ondieki in the big-city races, though those seven DNFs give Stenson an advantage in consistency.

Stenson’s outward demeanour belies the fact she is way tougher than people give her credit for. For most of her career Ondieki was a clear number one domestically, while it was probably not until last Sunday that many would have ranked Stenson ahead of all her contemporaries – Diver, Izzy Batt-Doyle, Genevieve Gregson, Lisa Weightman.

But with the two fastest marathons of her career coming this year (she also ran 2:22:56 in Tokyo in March), Stenson now stands with Lisa Ondieki and ahead of the rest. So, it’s Ondieki, then Stenson. And you can forget about A.N.Other (for now, anyway).