News Archive

Canadian athletics success has often come with a downside. Next

year, for example, Montreal will finally pay off the debt on the 1976

Olympic Games. Then there was the little matter of the big guy who

crossed the line first in the Olympic 100 metres in Seoul 1988. But the

team organising the ING Ottawa Marathon on Sunday are determined that

they are going to be up there with successes like Donovan Bailey and

Mark McKoy and the 1996 sprint squad, all of whom brought back Olympic

gold.

Ottawa’s elevated standards in Canadian marathon running has already

earned the cachet of sponsorship from ING, which also sponsors New

York, Amsterdam (where the legendary Haile Gebrselassie competes next

October), and  Brussels. But Ottawa race director, John Halvorsen

is determined that Canada’s capital city race is going to make even

more of an impact in the coming years.

Halvorsen, a 27min 43sec 10,000 metres runner 15 years ago, and a

two-time Norwegian Olympian is in his fifth year as race director. “We

see ourselves in a leadership role in Canada as an event with both

elite and mass participation (25,000 for all events this weekend). But

our aim is to put ourselves firmly on the North American scene, then on

the international marathon circuit”.

The first aim is a Canadian all-comers’ record, which dates back to

those Games in Montreal in ‘76, when East German Waldemar Cierpinski

recorded the first of his two Olympic marathon victories, in 2.09..55.

“We’ve got a budget of  $250,000 for elite athletes, and $200,000

in prize money, but if anyone can set a new record, there’s also a

Hyundai Tiburon as the reward”.

Defending his title is course record holder, with 2.11.47 from last

year, Elly Rono of Kenya. Rono, 35 is from near Eldoret, in the

heartland of Kenyan distance running success, but has lived mostly in

North Carolina in the last five years. During that time, he has won

over a dozen marathons, with a best of 2.10.57, and placed fourth in

New York in 2003. “The plan is for 64.30 pace at halfway,” says Rono,

“but if I can get anywhere sub-65, I’m confident I can beat 2.09.55”.

His colleague, Joseph Nderitu, who has won the race three times

concedes that Rono is favourite. “I’d just be happy to get pulled

through to 2.09,” says Nderitu, 30.

Women’s race favourite is defending champion, Ludmila Kortchugina, who

also won the race in 2002. Although from Russia, Kortchugina has been

living in Toronto (where she has also won the Toronto Waterfront

Marathon), and hopes to be a Canadian citizen in time for next year’s

Ottawa race. Her best is 2.29.53.

National Capital race Weekend begins with two classy 10k races,

sponsored by MDS Nordion on Saturday evening. Sub-28min men, Gilbert

Koech and Reuben Cheruyiot, both from Kenya should vie for honours,

while defending champion, Aster Demissie of Ethiopia will be

hard-pushed to triumph against in-form Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco, who

has recently won both the Sallie Mae 10k and the Lilac Bloomsday 12k.

Pat Butcher