Olympic standard for Woodfine, DNF for Levins
Woodfine had the race of his life, but Levins will go home disappointed
Sunday’s London Marathon was an amazing day for some runners and a personal worst for others. Among those who didn’t have a good day were Canadian record-holder Cam Levins, who didn’t finish, and Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, who ran his slowest marathon outside of a championship race, for eighth place. However, Canada’s Tristan Woodfine made good on his promise that he was in the shape of his life and ready to run the Olympic standard. Woodfine finished in 2:10:51, a massive personal best and 14th-place finish, which was also under the 2:11:30 he needed to qualify for the Games. His previous personal best was 2:13.
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Tristan Woodfine runs a PB and below the Olympic qualifying standard in London!#LondonMarathon #The40thRace pic.twitter.com/G8ho8DXaWT
— Athletics Canada (@AthleticsCanada) October 4, 2020
RELATED: Tristan Woodfine is ready to run Olympic standard in London
Levins started out well, running on 2:09 pace through the later stages of the race, but he started to look to be in pain at about the 35K mark and didn’t record a 40K split. Woodfine, however, ran a metronomic-like race, splitting 1:05 through the half and running 1:05 again to find himself across the line in 2:10. Woodfine said ahead of Sunday’s race, “This most recent build has been way beyond anything I’ve done before. I’ve got a lot of confidence going into this race. I think I can run standard, and I want to see how far under standard I can get.”
Woodfine now joins the ranks as one of Canada’s best-ever marathoners. He’s run the sixth-fastest time by a Canadian, with only Levins, Trevor Hofbauer, Jerome Drayton, Reid Coolsaet, and Dylan Wykes ever going faster. Woodfine will have to wait until the spring to be sure, but this mark will likely get him onto the Olympic team (unless two men ran faster in the meantime).
RELATED: Shura Kitata wins London Marathon in sprint finish, Kipchoge 8th
OH MY WORD WHAT A FINISH! ?
SHURA KITATA WINS THE 2020 VIRGIN MONEY LONDON MARATHON!#LondonMarathon #The40thRace
— TCS London Marathon (@LondonMarathon) October 4, 2020
In the overall results, Shura Kitata, the 24-year-old Ethiopian, took the win in 2:05:41. He was followed by Vincent Kipchuba in second at 2:05:42 and Sisay Lemma in third for 2:05:45. Full results can be found here.
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