Former Olympian Krishna Stanton made a startling competitive comeback to win the Sydney Marathon women's race by nearly 20 minutes today.
Stanton was pondering whether to relaunch her career after clocking two hours, 38 minutes and 11 seconds over the Sydney Olympic route to finish fourth overall among the 1685 runners in her marathon debut.
Only Sydney-based New Zealander Damon Harris (2:25.50), Morocco's Mustapka Takieddine (2.28.55) and Yugoslav Devic Borislan (2.29.11) finished ahead of the 25-year-old Brisbane woman in the men's event.
Last December Stanton called a halt to a career which yielded five national titles - two cross country, two 3000m and one road race - because of persistent injuries.
But three months ago she was influenced to return to running by a close friend. Stanton won the women's race from fellow Australians Sarah Mycroft (2:56.27) and Melissa Bulloch (2:59.20).
Sydney Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi of Japan, the race ambassador and owner of the second fastest women's marathon time in history, was never a serious competitor.
She started the race and finished it but got a lift in a car for 10kms midway through, as she was filmed for an advertisement.
AFP