Donna MacFarlane set both an Australian record and her personal best time of 9:18.35, by finishing third in the women's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2008 IAAF Golden League Meeting in Oslo, Norway.
10 Facts About Donna MacFarlane
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Early in her career, MacFarlane won the Australian Under 20 titles over 800m, 1500m and cross country.
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Donna MacFarlane struggled to improve her best times in her early twenties and retired from athletics to focus on her career as a journalist.
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Five years later - married and with two children, Donna MacFarlane resumed running as a personal goal to get fit and enter a fun run in Hobart, Tasmania.
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One year after getting back into running, Donna MacFarlane won a bronze medal in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
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Donna MacFarlane returned to world-class form in 2008, but a few months before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, her coach, Max Cherry died at the age of 81.
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Donna MacFarlane represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she competed in the first ever women's 3000 m steeplechase, along with her teammate Victoria Mitchell.
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Donna MacFarlane ran ninth in the third heat against fifteen other athletes, including Kenya's Eunice Jepkorir and Russia's Yekaterina Volkova, who both later won the silver and bronze medals in the final, respectively.
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Donna MacFarlane ended her international athletics competition with the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
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Donna MacFarlane maintains her involvement with Australian athletics and is a creative and corporate writer.