Runner’s Tribe
Here is a list of the fastest marathon debuts ever. We rank the top 20 men and women. Because Boston is a point-to-point course, with an overall downhill slope, the times were not officially recognised, hence Moses Mosop’s positioning as the unofficial number 1. The IAAF rules essentially require marathon records to be established on a loop course (thereby neutralising the impact of wind and course elevation changes).
For Australia, Jeff Hunt recorded the fastest ever marathon debut in Beppu, Japan with 2:11:00 set on 07 FEB 2010.
Men
Women
In 2002, Paula Radcliffe made the move up to the marathon, a decision that immediately paid dividends with a stunning victory at her debut in that year’s London Marathon on 14 April 2002 in a world’s best time for a women’s only race (2:18:55). Her time was the second quickest in women’s marathon history behind the former world record of 2:18:47 set by Catherine Ndereba, of Kenya, in Chicago.
Later that year, Radcliffe set a world record time of 2:17:18 in the Chicago Marathon on 13 October 2002, breaking the previous record by a minute and a half.
In 2003 Radcliffe set the current world record in the London Marathon in April, with a time of 2:15:25.
Mizuki Matsuda’s 2:22:44 debut in Osaka in January this year and Hanami Sekine’s 2:23:07 debut in Nagoya in March.
* This was their first finished marathon.
