Watch for these Canadians at the 2017 Ottawa Marathon

One of the year’s largest events, with more than 40,000 runners, begins Saturday and notably features the marathon on Sunday morning.

The Ottawa Marathon, one of two marquee events as part of race weekend in addition to the 10K, is an IAAF Gold Label race and as such is attracting some of the world’s top runners to the nation’s capital. Among the thousands of runners will be a selection of Canadian elites.

RELATED: Watch for these Canadians at the 2017 Ottawa 10K.

The most notable name in the field is Dayna Pidhoresky who will be in the hunt for a top spot at the 2017 IAAF World Championships. Pidhoresky has had a stellar start to 2017 with wins in each of her four races so far. Beginning with the St. Patrick’s Day 5K in Vancouver, Pidhoresky went on to win the Around the Bay 30K, Scotiabank Montreal Half and Times Colonist 10K.

Pidhoresky will need to run faster than 2:35:46 in the marathon, the mark of the third-fastest Canadian in the event as of writing, to be in the top-three among Canadian women who have the standard for worlds. Her best is 2:40:39. Lanni Marchant, the second ranked women’s marathoner in Canada, is not expected to run the marathon at the world championships.

Third at the Scotiabank Montreal Half was Arianne Raby who told Canadian Running after the April race that she wants to run 2:40 in Ottawa. She ran 1:15:53 in Montreal at the Canada Running Series event. Watch for Megan Kuikman, with a 2:47 lifetime best and Liza Howard, the top Canadian at the 2015 New York City Marathon, to perhaps approach the IAAF World Championships standard of 2:45:00. (Only the top-three women with standard are selected to the worlds team so hitting standard does not guarantee team selection.)

In the men’s race, look for Kimba Djado Abdoul Aziz to challenge for top Canadian honours. He was the top Canadian at the 2016 Berlin Marathon running 2:25:41. The full list of Canadian elites in both the men’s and women’s races can be found below.

The Canadian records in the marathon are 2:10:09, held by Jerome Drayton, and 2:28:00 by Lanni Marchant, who just signed a groundbreaking deal with Under Armour. (Marchant will be in Ottawa for race weekend though not in a racing capacity.) Note that this weekend is the last chance for national team hopefuls to attempt to qualify in the marathon for the 2017 IAAF World Championships. The cutoff date is May 31, which falls mid-week.

Elite women (Canadians)

Dayna Pidhoresky
Megan Kuikman
Arianne Raby
Liza Howard
Maryse Nault
Joanne Normand
Valerie St-Martin
Laura McLean
Alice Sherwin
Elizabeth Waywell
Kathleen Beaudry
Alana Cadieux
Kristine Self
Charlene Arsenault

Elite men (Canadians)

Kimba Djado Abdoul Aziz
Daniel Desharnais
Louis-Philippe Garnier
Nicholas Berrouard
James MacLellan
Alexandre Boulé
Joel Maley
Philippe Reynolds

Canadian Running will be reporting live from Ottawa this weekend so make sure to follow along, both online at runningmagazine.ca and on social media.

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