Ottawa Marathon course record smashed

TRACEY TONG
METRO OTTAWA
May 31, 2010 5:51 a.m.

He didn’t quite reach his goal of setting a new record on Canadian soil, but Japan’s Arata Fujiwara was thrilled, nonetheless, after setting a new course record for the Ottawa Marathon yesterday.

Fujiwara’s 2:09:33 marathon, which broke David Cheruiyot’s 2007 record of 2:10:35, marked both the 28-year-old’s first time in Canada and his first-ever marathon win.

“It felt great today,” said Fujiwara through his agent and translator, Brett Larner. “The conditions were fantastic ... and it feels great to win.”

The best thing about the victory? No, it wasn’t the $23,000 US in prize money. Fujiwara enjoyed putting his hands in the air in “the guts pose” as he crossed the finish line.

“Although I’ve finished second and third a couple of times before, raising your hands in the air when you’re second or third is kind of embarrassing,” he laughed. “It was nice to be able to do it for once.”

Fujiwara, who made headlines in Japan after he became the first Japanese marathoner to leave a corporate team to run as an independent, wasn’t the only athlete to set a record yesterday. Rick Ball of Orillia broke his own world record for fastest marathon by an amputee with a time of 2:57:48. He set the previous record of 3:01:50 in 2009.

“It feels good to be the first single-leg amputee to break that three-hour mark,” said Ball.

The first woman to cross the finish line in a time of 2:28:19 was Merima Mohammed of Ethiopia, while Kitchener’s Stephen Drew and Brantford’s Krista DuChene were the first Canadians to cross the line with respective times of 2:21:47 and 2:39:07.

Rick Ball of Orillia broke his own world record for fastest marathon by an amputee with a time of 2:57:48. He set the previous record of 3:01:50 in 2009.

Organizers said 38,788 people participated in seven races over the weekend.

Local Results Once again there was a large local presence at the 2010 Ottawa Race Weekend. Some runners use this event as their first race of the season but the majority are repeaters who come for lots of reasons from the obvious one of performance improvement to just running for the joy of it on scenic courses in a beautiful city. Results of special Note: 2k - Hourtevenko and Valiquette family participation 5k - Chantry Cargill's first in age group and Katie Maziarski's 2nd in age group 10k - Louis Moustgaard takes 3 minutes off his last year's time and wife Maureen knocks off four minutes (must be a competition) Half - 37 local participants (I want to see you all in Sudbury next May 1) Full - Dan Welch qualifies for the Boston Marathon beating the required time by 16 minutes. Dan attributes some of the success to          excellent pacing by Steve Fessenden. Congratulations All! Results

 

 

May 29, 2010

Rocks!! member Shawn Schryer upped his running distance this weekend when he tackled the Sulfur Springs 50k Trail Run, one of the events in the Ontario Ultra Series. Shawn writes:

I recently ran my first 50km. ultra last Saturday and thought Id share my race with you. I've been entertaining the idea of running an ultra for some time now and decided on the sulphur springs race in Ancaster, Ontario. It was a great day and fairly warm, but fortunately most of the trails are tree covered giving a lot of desired shade along the way. There was a distance choice for just about everyone from the 10km. all the way to the bold 160 km.
I decided to be proactive and run as conservative as possible especially in the beginning, lots of up and down hills sure made it very interesting to say the least along with the beautiful scenery in the whole conservation area and lots of friendly runners that offered encouragement along the way with an abundance of volunteers working at least 7 aid stations fully stocked with juices,fruit,candy,sandwiches and much more.
Another interesting note is that a lot of the volunteers spend a minimum of 30 hrs. at their posts until all the events have completed,how incredible is that.

I was hoping to break 5 hrs. but couldn't quite manage it,perhaps another time. I would highly recommend this race as my experience was very positive.
Shawn Schryer

Results Here (Check out the 50 miler as well. Sudbury's Jason Elson, Kristen Zazelenchuk and Christy Drimmel took on the challenge).

 

Emma Tallman ran a personal best in the 800m and qualified for the Canadian Junior Championships, later this summer in Moncton, NB.

Emma's time of 2:12.96 broke the standard of 2:15.00 and currently ranks her 2nd in Canada in the 800m among Junior runners (19 and under). She placed 5th in the race, primarily against senior-aged athletes.

Emma Tallman - National Rankings

While Emma will be starting her third year of university in the Fall, she is still a Junior-aged athlete and what she possibly doesn't even know is that her indoor university times placed very highly in the Athletics Canada rankings. Her national rankings were as follows:

National Rankings: Athletics Canada, Junior Category
800m - 2nd
1000m - 2nd
600m - 4th