Sinead Diver (Vic)

Hailing from Mayo, Ireland, mother of two, Sinead Diver is Australia's most successful marathoner at the international level since the legendary Steve Moneghetti retired from elite competition in 2000.  Although she's heading to the Tokyo as our fastest female in the event, her pathway to the top has been unlike any other on the Australian Athletics Team.

An active child who enjoyed climbing cliffs and swimming, Sinead admits to never running much as a kid. In fact, she only took up running at the age of 33, as a way to improve her fitness after the birth of her eldest son Eddie. Her sister Gráinne asked her to join a corporate team who were doing an event around The Tan in Melbourne, and to her surprised, ran the lap in just over 15 minutes - not bad for someone who had never trained before. On her second attempt, she shaved 40 seconds off her time, and found herself a new passion in the process.

Quickly making her mark on distance events, she had her first success in the 3000m in late 2011, clocking 9:49. The following year (2012) she won the national half-marathon title and was second in the national cross country and fifth at the Zatopek 10. In 2014, she was second in the national cross country, clocked a half marathon personal best of 74:25 and late in the year made her marathon debut, running an impressive 2:34 to place second in Melbourne. The performance secured selection for the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, where in her international debut, aged 38, she placed an outstanding 21st. In 2017 she smashed PBs including a 2:31.37 marathon in Nagoya, followed by placing 20th in the London World Championships.

Starting in March 2018, Sinead compiled a series of breath taking performances from 5000m to marathon. She brought her 5000m PB down to 15:23 and was third in the national title. At 10,000m she won Zatopek and the Oceania titles with a best of 31:50.98 (9th Australian all-time). In the half marathon she ran four PBs for an improvement of 4:26 minutes, five sub-70 minutes runs and moved to #7 Australian all-time. Running two marathon PBs she sliced 7:26 minutes from her PB, to become the third fastest in Australian history.

2019 saw Sinead add to her already impressive list of achievements, beginning with a 7th place finish at the London Marathon in a time of 2:24.11. Diver progressed to compete in the10,000m final at the IAAF World Championships in Doha, placing 14th in a time of 31:25.49. Just months later, Diver would clock 2:26:23 at the New York Marathon to finish in 5th place - her best result at a major marathon. 

In 2020, the South Yarra local travelled to London to compete in a pandemic-impacted London Marathon - which included a "bubble" for athletes and a lapped course (only just over 2km) to minimise public interactions. She finished 8th in the race in a time of 2:27:07.

Not only does she balance motherhood with training, Sinead also works full time as a Senior Analyst Engineer at NAB - a role she's held for 11 years.