By Luke Voogt
Geelong and the Surf Coast will cheer on Aireys Inlet physio Ellie Pashley when she takes on the world’s best in the women’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympics tomorrow.
The 32-year-old will step off at 8am AEST in Sapporo in hot and humid conditions, with husband Joe Pashley watching from Aireys Inlet.
“She’s a lot more relaxed than I am,” he told the Independent on Wednesday, after speaking to her online that morning.
“She’s feeling really good. She’s relaxed because she’s had a good lead-in and the training has been as good as she could hope for.
“The only thing she’s a little bit nervous about is the heat and humidity. But she’s been preparing for that.”
In fact, Joe reckons the conditions could improve his wife’s chances, especially with her coach Julian Spence passing on his experience running in locations like Doha, Qatar, in the Middle East.
The athletes are in strict lockdown at a hotel in Sapporo, and travel by bus daily to a private park reserved for them to train in.
Ellie has clocked about 160km a week preparing for the marathon, which Joe said she would be “tapering off” this week.
“This week she’ll be lucky to do 100km. She’s really wound it back because she’s preparing for the race.”
Ellie ran cross country in high school and competed for Australia in the World Student Cross Country Championships while studying at university in her original hometown Albury.
But she only began running longer distances in her mid-20s, building up to her first marathon at age 27 in Melbourne in 2016, with a time of two hours and 46 seconds.
Her times continued to improve until completed a marathon in Nagoya, Japan, in 2:26.21 – the eighth fastest time ever by an Australian woman.
In October 2020 she battled travelling in a COVID-affected world to compete in the London Marathon, running 2:31.31 to place 12th shortly after returning from injury.
Ellie will face Kenyan runner Brigid Kosgei, who set the world record of 2:14:04 in 2019.
Meanwhile, the Grovedale parents of Australian cyclist Leigh Howard celebrated on Wednesday after his team won bronze in a valiant comeback.
Howard’s teammate Alex Porter’s handlebars inexplicably collapsed during Monday’s qualifying session.
But the team fought back against Switzerland on Tuesday to make the bronze ride-off, and defeated New Zealand when one of its riders crashed in a dramatic race on Wednesday.
Kyra Cooney-Cross, who went to high school in Torquay, was set to join the Matildas playing for bronze last night against the top-ranked US team.
The game was scheduled to begin after the Independent went to press last night.
