Lanni Marchant explains her surprising absence in London

It turns out, Lanni Marchant decided to stay in Canada instead of heading to London to compete at the World Championships in London.

As we reported earlier on Saturday, the Canadian marathon record holder, was supposed to race the 10,000m final on Saturday evening, local time, but she was a no show, leaving many, including Athletics Canada, confused about her status and whereabouts.

Athletics Canada has released a statement from Marchant. She also spoke to Canadian Running, explaining that there was some confusion over the email correspondence between her, Team Canada head coach Glenroy Gilbert and other representatives at Athletics Canada. The below statement from Marchant was meant to be in response to an email from Gilbert on July 31, inquiring about Marchant’s plans for London. Athletics Canada indicated that they had not heard from the 33 year old since she set out to prove fitness in a pre-training camp workout in Canada. She did not attend the Athletics Canada camps last week in Europe either.

According to Marchant, the email she thought she sent to Athletics Canada in response ended up sitting in her drafts folder by accident. It read, in part:

“I am sad to say I will have to turn down my spot on the World Championship team. Despite my best efforts I am just not ready to compete at the level that is required to race at the championship level and I value too much the more athlete centered approach we have at AC to take advantage of things and show up unprepared.

I am hopeful to chase some quick times later this year and wish the team nothing but the best at next week’s championships.”

Marchant reached out to Canadian Running on Saturday afternoon via email, wishing to clarify the situation:

“I did not and do not want my absence from the race to be a story, It has been a rocky year and once I accepted that I wouldn’t be lining up I just wanted to create some space and distance from the event this weekend.” 

Marchant battled a kidney stone issue earlier this year, and although she raced a pair of 5,000m races to show fitness in preparation for London, she performed poorly and expressed frustration with her predicament. Athletics Canada had entered into the 10,000m final after not hearing back from her as of late, but were forced to scratch her from the start list on Friday.