Athletics Canada announces Olympic Games standards

The governing body for track and field and road racing in Canada, Athletics Canada, announced their qualifying standards for the 2016 Olympic Games on Wednesday.

As expected, most of the standards are similar to the marks from 2012, though a major difference for road racing fans will be a notably slower men’s marathon standard of 2:12:50. The 2012 mark was 2:11:29, though Canada still sent a full, three-runner team. The women’s standard has been slightly heightened to 2:29:50 from 2:29:55.

The qualification period for the marathon opened on Jan. 1, 2015, meaning Reid Coolsaet and Krista DuChene’s results from the recent Rotterdam Marathon will hold up as marks which make them eligible to compete in the Games. The qualifying period for the 10,000m also opened in January. Most other events will see their qualification period open in spring of 2016.

A full list of standards can be found here.