Preisner, Anteneh upset former champs to win Boxing Day 10 Miler

The 99th annual Boxing Day 10 and 4 Miler took place on Thursday morning in Hamilton, Ont. The race draws huge crowds of runners to compete in an off-distance road race. Among the runners were Olympians, Canadian record holders and national champions.

This year saw two new victors in the men’s and women’s races, Ben Preisner and Emebet Anteneh, who beat reigning champions Matt Hughes and Robyn Mildren.

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Some pictures of the top finishers at today's Boxing Day 10 Miler in Hamilton pic.twitter.com/Kw0KrpDARp

— Stephen Andersen (@AndersenRuns) December 26, 2019

Preisner caught Canadians attention when he won the 2019 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon. There he ran a two-minute personal best, hitting 1:03:02 for the half-marathon win. He won Thursday’s 10 miler in 48:18, just 13 seconds off of Hughes’ course record. Second place went to ACXC (national cross-country) champion Mike Tate (48:47) and third place to the Canadian steeplechase record holder Hughes (49:21).

RELATED: Why Matt Hughes left the Bowerman Track Club

In the women’s race, Emebet Anteneh won in 55:18, almost a full minute ahead of the second place finisher. Anteneh has been a force on the Canadian roads in 2019. She ran a 1:10:28 at the Edmonton Half-Marathon and a 16:04 5K in the fall. Anteneh comes from a track background, owning an extremely impressive 14:43.29 5,000m personal best.

Second place in the women’s race went to Sanna Mustonen (56:04) and third place to Leslie Sexton (56:19).

RELATED: How Leslie Sexton went from DNF’ing to a huge PB

Full results can be found here.