Andy Buchanan has broken the Australian marathon record, taking more than a minute off the previous mark in Valencia on Sunday.

In the same race, Izzi Batt-Doyle ran the third-fastest time ever by an Australian woman over the distance, taking 28 seconds off her personal best to run 2.22:59 and finish eighth.

Only Sinéad Diver (2:21.34, Valencia 2022) and Benita Willis-Johnson (2:22.36, Chicago 2006) have ever run faster.

Hosting the annual marathon just weeks after devastating flooding hit the region, organisers pledged 3 euros ($4.86) for each person who finished the race to go towards rebuilding grassroots sporting facilities in some of the 75 towns impacted by the disaster.

A minute’s silence was also held at the start of the race for the 220 people who lost their lives.

Both performances once again underlined the incredible strength in depth of Australian distance running, with a number of athletes pushing the boundaries on the global stage.

Batt-Doyle, one of the six Aussie women who ran under the Olympic qualification time for Paris but one of the three to miss out on selection, qualified for the World Championships with her time.

Despite missing out on the marathon, she still competed at the Paris Games, reaching the final on the track in the 5,000m.

Ethiopia’s Megertu Alemu won the race in a personal best time of 2:16:49.

In the men’s race, Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe took the win in an astonishing 2.02:05 in what was his debut over the 42km distance.

Buchanan also achieved the qualifying standard, finishing in 16th place over a course that was far more forgiving than he raced in Paris in August at the 2024 Olympics.

Courses like Valencia are known as flat, fast courses with multiple national records falling on the day, and in idyllic conditions the 33-year-old tore around the flat course in 2, hours, 6 minutes and 22 seconds.

“I kind of had this thought where the record would have been a bonus after such an awesome year,” Buchanan, whose Paris run marked his Olympics debut, told Athletics Australia.

“So if I go for it and blow up, I’d still look back on the year and be really happy with it.

“I still consider myself to be the guy from Bendigo that does a bit of running.

“It’s going to take me a while to process that I’m the Australian record holder.”

The previous record, held by Brett Robinson, was 2.07:31, set at the Fukuoka marathon in 2022, finally breaking Rob de Castella’s 36-year-old mark.

Buchanan competed in the marathon at the 2024 Games, finishing 45th in a time of 2.12:58 on the brutally tough, hilly course around Paris.

Buchanan was a late call-up for the Olympics, incidentally taking the place of the injured Robinson, whose record he just claimed.

“I think Brett and Sinéad were the trendsetters,” Buchanan told Athletics Australia.

“They were the first ones to make those big jumps and we’re just following in their footsteps.

“Brett showed me that I could do it and, credit to them, they worked at it for so long and now we all feel like we can do it too.

“The floodgates are definitely open.”