Australia athletics coach defends controversial women’s marathon call despite 1.2km withdrawal

Australian athletics coach Nic Bideau has jumped to the defence of marathon runner Sinead Diver’s after her early withdrawal from the women’s marathon in Paris.

Diver was forced to pull out after just 1.2km due to cramping in both quads, while she also battled plantar fasciitis before the Games.

As Diver battled injury in the lead-up to the event, Bideau was asked whether she shouldn’t have run and instead been replaced by Lisa Weightman – who qualified third-fastest to run alongside Jessica Stenson – who finished 13th.

Bideau backed the call to allow Diver – the Australian record holder - to run as he said the injury that caused the cramps wasn’t known in the lead-up to the event as he and the Australia team felt she was ready for her big race.

“The day before and the morning of the race, she went there ready to run,” Bideau told SEN Breakfast

“If you wanted to rule out people that have an injury, there would be no starters. Just about everybody that starts an Olympic marathon is carrying some sort of niggle.

“Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest marathon runner ever, couldn’t finish the race.

“The injury that stopped Sinead from running occurred during the warm-up. It wasn’t present, no mention of it, no sign of it at all until she started to warm up and her quads cramped.

“We’re still not sure of the cause, but she was ready to run a marathon and I was fully expecting her to finish the race.

“It was a new injury, and it’s just disappointing that some of the media coverage suggested there was an injury she had carried for a long time that caused her to stop.”

Diver finished 10th in the women’s marathon at the most recent Olympics before Paris in Tokyo.

Listen to Bideau’s full chat with Garry Lyon and Tim Watson below.