2026 Commonwealth Games: Ballarat marathon would have been cut

Legendary distance runner and Commonwealth Games Australia board member, Ballarat's Steve Moneghetti, revealed that a half-marathon had been signed off by the Commonwealth Games Federation, rather than the historic 42.2km event which was won by Australian Jess Stenson in Birmingham in 2022.

Premier Daniel Andrews announced Ballarat would hold the Commonwealth Games marathon in October 2022.

Moneghetti, himself a Commonwealth Games marathon gold medalist, said the idea was hatched as a way to attract high-level international competitors who would be in training for lucrative city marathons run in the first half of the year.

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"I was initially disappointed with that, but I was in Birmingham and I've seen the way the Commonwealth Games marathon has been going and it's struggled to get the best runners in the world to do it, so the decision was taken to run a half marathon," he said.

"The reason the athletes don't run it is because there are big city marathons where they get the appearance fees.

"We were going to struggle to get a quality field. We would have definitely got the best Australians, but if we were to try and get the best Kenyans, the best African nations, there would be some that would be foregoing $250,000.

"So for those reasons, the half-marathon would have allowed someone to become the Commonwealth champion, they could use it as a perfect training run, but they wouldn't forego the opportunity in the lead-up to big city marathon (a few weeks later)."

Moneghetti was a world record holder over the 21km distance, and said he would have expected a quick course in Ballarat, which would have seen many athletes go below the one-hour mark for the race.

"Obviously an event like that wouldn't have the history of the marathon, but it was a distance event that would have been highly sought after," he said.

"Right now the marathon at the Commonwealth Games is not a priority for the world's best runners."

With Ballarat to launch its inaugural marathon next April, Moneghetti said it was the right time to put all efforts into making that event the biggest and best it could be.

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"Recreational running is booming. I'm on the Sydney Marathon board and we've broken through the 14,000 entrants for that event. The biggest marathon in Australia ever has had about 8200 runners, so we have now almost doubled the biggest marathon field ever in Australia for that event," he said.

"The Melbourne marathon and half marathon is sold out, Gold Coast marathon is sold out. Recreational running is absolutely booming.

"How good will it be to try and capitalise on that at the Ballarat Marathon next year? I'm the race director for that and it will be a fantastic event to showcase Ballarat, as it would have been for the Commonwealth Games."

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