It was way back on Wednesday of this week when Athletics Canada released their Olympics standards for the 2012 Olympics. For men, the standard was set at 2:11:29, while for women, the standard is 2:29:55. At first glance, since no Canadian man or women had achieved those standards in many years, it might appear to be Athletics Canada essentially shutting out their endurance athletes. However, what this doesn't take into account is the great progression and development of several Canadian males.
People might know of Simon Bairu, the Regina native who beat Ryan Hall with a stellar 62:47 half marathon this January. He is currently training for his marathon debut (New York City in November) where the expectations are high for him to perhaps challenge the 35-year old Canadian marathon record of 2:10:09 set by the legendary Jerome Drayton. But three other Canadian males, Eric Gillis, Reid Coolsaet and Dylan Wykes, have also been improving. They are all middle-distance runners who have been slowly increasing up to marathon distances, and have been improving over the last couple of years.
Wykes made his marathon debut in 2008, running 2:15:16 in Rotterdam. Coolsaet made the jump in 2009, running 2:17:09 at the Ottawa marathon. Willis waited until January of 2010, when he ran a remarkable debut of 2:13:56 at the Houston marathon.
This week included a great article on Guelph teammates Gillis and Coolsaet, where it says they have been running upwards of 240 km per week getting ready for this marathon. Another article in the Toronto Star talks about the Brooks Marathon House project, a 5 year $1.5 million commitment by Brooks to create the next great Canadian marathoner, which so far has produced some decent results but no breakthrough performances that would justify the expense. The project has just one healthy athlete making an attempt this weekend in Toronto, with 26-year old Matt Loiselle making his marathon debut.
Anyhow, Coolsaet and Gillis were running the Toronto Marathon earlier today, and Wykes was running the half-marathon at the same event. And all of them had great days, lead by an incredible run by Reid Coolsaet who set a PB by over 5 minutes (!!!) in running 2:11:23, beating the very difficult Canadian Olympic standard by just 6 seconds! An absolutely stellar run. His training mate Eric Gillis also had a huge PB, finishing in 2:12:08, leaving himself just 40 seconds short of the Olympic standard. Both men with huge breakthrough races.
Wykes had a great half, finishing 3rd overall in 1:05:11. His next marathon will undoubtedly be an attempt at a huge marathon PB and perhaps another Olympic qualifier.
Congrats too to Matt Loiselle, running an impressive 2:19:03 as well to finish as the 3rd Canadian.
The future looks great for the men. Now we need some ladies!! Good job by all...
No comments:
Post a Comment