SYDNEY HALF MARATHON REVIEW: Drew Fryer and Jenny Blundell claim victory

14 Sept 2025

SYDNEY HALF MARATHON REVIEW: Drew Fryer and Jenny Blundell claim victory

Drew Fryer and Jenny Blundell stormed to victory at the 35th edition of the Sydney Half Marathon held this morning in glorious conditions at Sydney Olympic Park. Both races were undecided until deep into the third and final lap of the 21.1km race. They led a record 2400 entries across the three races – Sydney Half Marathon, 10km and family fun run. 

MEN HALF MARATHON

A pack of eight led the field on the first 7km lap, by midway on the second lap, the lead group was only trimmed down to a lead group of seven as they approached the 10/11 km crossroads section. Then the moves came. The Fryer brothers Drew and Kurt put their foot down, holding a few metres over Alex Shaw and Jack Maxwell. However, Matthew Quibell and Yusuke Shibuya remained in contact. Drew Fryer now in the lead put 14 seconds between himself and his brother Kurt by the 15km mark 47:33 to 47:47. Chasing hard was Yusuke Shibuya, just seven second adrift of Kurt (47:54). Over the last 6km the gap between the three leaders grew. However the main movement was Alex Shaw nearly catching Shibuya for the bronze medal with just two seconds separating them at the finish. Drew ran 67:14, Kurt 67:39, Yusuke Shibuya 68:08 and Alex Shaw 68:10.

The race had unfolded exactly as Drew and Kurt had planned. Drew explained:

“We had a good pack to find a good rhythm. I was working with Kurt and Alex (Shaw) and a couple of the other guys. Then Kurt and I sort of always thought once we get to halfway through that second lap we'll start to pick it up a bit. And that's when we did, dropped the hammer and got it down to 3.10s.”

In the 35-year history of the NSW Half Marathon Championships, Drew becomes just the second Randwick Botany male athlete to win the race after Paul Arthur (who ran today) won in 1997 and 1998 events held at Holsworthy Army camp.

Kurt is building up for the Melbourne marathon, while Drew, the 2022 NSW 10,000m champion, will chase that title again and also the world cross country trials in November.

There have been lots of changes going on for Drew this year.

“I started working full time in February and I had a stress fracture so I was sort of building back.”

Drew, who started work as a marketing associate at News Corp Australia in the subscriptions team, now didn’t have the flexibility for training.

“Now with fixed nine to five work, that first few months was just solving the puzzle.”

He started training under coach Jimbo Fitzgerald, and alongside his brother Kurt and Lochie Townsend.

“We're not professional (fulltime) athletes. I found a training program that worked with my job - it's always obviously hard to fit everything in.” 

There was also another change for Drew – a club move from Sydney University back to his original club – Randwick Botany.

After four years at UTS (Business degree), he completed a Master of Commerce at Sydney University and joined the club for two years.

“I was always going to go back. I'd been at Randwick Botany for over 10 years before. Our pop (Edward Newell) ran for Randwick Botany Harriers, so, we've got history at the club. He tells us he used to race the mile when it was around the SCG. Chick Hensley was his coach.”

WOMEN HALF MARATHON

Similarly, the women’s race was not decided until the last lap. After a couple of kilometres after the start, the lead women were already separated with Ethiopian visitor Emebet Getawy, well clear of dual Olympian Jenny Blundell, with Jemma Griffin in third and closely follow by Georgina Beck. This order remained the same until very deep into the third lap. At the 15km mark Emebet was 48 seconds ahead of Jenny, but over the last 6km Jenny cut into the lead, eventually passing Emebet for a 24 seconds win in 74:37 from Emebet running an 11 seconds PB time of 75:01. It was similar with the bronze medal battle, with Georgina Beck overhauling a 47 seconds gap at 15km to claim the medal from Jemma Griffin.

Jenny Blundell explained her race plan:

“We did a bit of a race drill in prep for the Melbourne Half Marathon (her next race). So first lap, was about 3:25s (per kilometre). The second lap, I was to be patient, and we dropped it back down to 3:35s. And then we just built up each K in that last lap.”

“I've never really gone further than 15km in a race, so I just wanted to at least get to 18km today.”

In the 35-year history of the NSW Half Marathon Championships, Jenny becomes just the third Sydney University female athlete to win the race after Milly Clark (2013, 2015) and Audrey Amiya-Hall (2017). 

It was also a special day for coach Jimbo Fitzgerald, who guided both Jenny Blundell and Drew Fryer to State titles.

TOP-10 WOMEN

1 Jenny BLUNDELL 01:14:37

2 Emebet GETAWY 01:15:01

3 Georgina BECK 01:20:00

4 Jemma GRIFFIN 01:20:44

5 Bronwyn HAGER 01:22:01

6 Tia FULTON 01:24:09

7 Laura MORATH 01:24:23

8 Taili NI 01:24:26

9 Olivia BECK 01:24:32

10 Sophie CURZON 01:25:02

TOP-10 MEN

1 Drew FRYER 01:07:14

2 Kurt FRYER0 1:07:39

3Yusuke SHIBUYA 01:08:08

4 Alexander SHAW 01:08:10

5 Matthew QUIBELL 01:08:37

6 Jack MAXWELL 01:08:53

7 Luke BABIC 01:09:16

8 Ben BISHOP 01:09:34

9 Matthew HO 01:09:43

10 David BAKER 01:09:57

NSW Half Marathon Championships

Women: Jenny Blundell SYU, Bronwyn Hager Delta, Laura Morath KEJ

Men: Drew Fryer RBH, Kurt Fryer RBH, Yusuke Shibuya Delta

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Drew (44) and Kurt (43) Fryer lead the field around the 10km mark (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)