Andrea Seccafien runs to PB, third-place finish at Australian 10,000m championships

Seccafien's 31:45.95 result is the third-fastest 10,000m in Canadian history and just four seconds off the national record

Ben Snider-McGrath January 27, 2021

Andrea Seccafien opened her 2021 season with a run at the Zatopek Classic in Melbourne on Tuesday, competing in the Australian 10,000m championships. Running in her first 10,000m race since 2019, Seccafien had her eye on the Olympic standard of 31:25, and while she fell short of that goal, her 31:45.95 result was good enough for third place in the race and third on the all-time Canadian 10,000m rankings. She now sits just four seconds behind national record holder Natasha Wodak, who owns a PB of 31:41.59.

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The Zatopek Classic is normally held in December, but due to COVID-19, the event was moved to January for this year only, which is why the season is opening with the Australian national championships. The meet gave Seccafien, who lives in Melbourne, and other athletes the chance to open 2021 with big results and — potentially — Olympic qualifying times (although no one in either of the 10,000m races hit Olympic standard).

In an Instagram post after the race, Seccafien wrote, “We set a high goal last night. We didn’t quite get there, but I’m proud of the pursuit…. 31:45 for third isn’t what I was after, but I know we’ll all be better for going after this.” Even though she missed the Olympic standard by 20 seconds, Seccafien certainly has a lot to be proud of moving forward. She smashed her previous 10,000m best of 32:48.30 (which she set at the 2019 Zatopek Classic) by more than a minute, and she was extremely close to adding a second Canadian record to her resume, which would join her half-marathon national best of 1:09:38. She is currently in third behind Wodak, as already noted, and second-place Courtney Babcock, who ran 31:44.74 in 2003.

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Finally, living in Australia puts Seccafien in a much better position than many other athletes right now, as she will likely have many other race opportunities to hit standard (and break the Canadian 10,000m record in the process). She has already run Olympic standard in the 5,000m, beating the qualifying time of 15:10 at the 2019 world championships in Doha, first running 15:04.67 in the heats and bettering that result in the finals with a 14:59.95 finish.

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