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Canada Day Road Race
Posted By Ken Pagan North Bay Nugget
forwarded by Tim Uuksulainen
Rocks!! member Tim Uuksulainen and son Kiefer
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Craig Fettes crossed the
finish line first in the five-kilometre event and
Bart Nichol led the way in the 10-km race as nearly
80 participants opened Canada Day by taking part in
the 39th annual Canada Day Road Race along the North
Bay waterfront, Wednesday.
Fettes completed the five-km course in 17:19, while
the top female in the five-km race was Donna-Mae Robins,
who finished in 18:57.
Nichol completed the 10-km course in 34:57, while
the first female to cross the line was Ashley Irwin
in 47:51.
The race was completed under dry conditions, although
many runners got wet as the rains began coming down
as organizers handed out post-race medals at Marathon
Beach.
The 39th annual event was started in 1971 by Frank
Caruso, who moved to Toronto in 1992, but was back
in North Bay Wednesday to help current organizer Cosmo
Ianiro keep things moving.
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For several years, the original Canada Day Road Race course
was 8.2 kilometres, winding through a parade route on downtown
streets with a start/finish line at Memorial Gardens, Caruso
said.
In the early years, the event was quite competitive, often
featuring international-calibre runners such as Greg Duhaime,
even attracting some veterans from the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
The event maxed out at 150 participants before evolving
into more of a family event by the 1990s with the course
shifting to the waterfront and the five- and 10-km distances
offered.
In 1992, Ianiro, a star runner who had been coached by
Caruso and whose NDA sprint records stood for 27 years,
took over the race.
Wednesday’s event featured several longtime participants,
including starter Art Gabor and Michel Chartrand, 57, who
ran the first race as a teenager in 1971 and who completed
Wednesday’s five-km course in 22:34. Chartrand estimates
he’s completed North Bay’s Canada Day Road Race
more than 30 times in its 39 years.
North
Bay Nugget Story
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