Sport
20 July, 2025
Port firie’s marathon finish
PORT Douglas firie Liam Brandt has taken part in his first marathon on the Gold Coast and completed the course with great success.
Prior to the event on July 6, Mr Brandt had only been running for a total of 15 months and up until the race itself had only ran a maximum of 36km, 6km short of the total marathon distance.
Based at Port Douglas Fire Station, Mr Brandt is also a member of the Port Douglas Crocs Team, so he is used to keeping fit.
Prior to the marathon he set a target of four minutes and 15 seconds per kilometre, which would bring him over the finish line in under two hours.
As part of his challenge, the marathon newbie was representing the ‘Running for Premature Babies’ charity team.
Mr Brandt was inspired to choose this charity as a result of his brother who was born premature and spent 10 months battling for life, but unfortunately didn’t survive.
“It impacted my family, although I was very young at the time and didn’t realise the magnitude of the situation and how it affected people,” he said.
“I can imagine it affects a lot of families the same way, so if I could raise some money to possibly help one kid and the family, so they didn’t have to go through that, it would be an amazing feeling.”
Running for Premature Babies supports the equipment and research needs of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and special care nurseries (SCNs) Australia-wide to help give premature babies a better chance of survival and quality of life.
After now successfully completing his first Gold Coast Marathon, Mr Brandt said the post-race celebrations were more than justified after achieving a time of two hours, 58 minutes and 30 seconds, together with a significant sum of money raised.
Mr Brandt was fortunate enough to have training partner, Alex Forbes from Cooya Beach, who crossed the finish line in two hours 49 minutes.
