Canadian trio of top masters take on Boston

Elites on the start line of the Boston Marathon are not shortchanged attention as the race approaches, but a row behind them are some of the best masters runners in the world. This year three of Canada’s fastest masters-aged women are headed to Beantown to race from Hopkinton to Boylston Street.

Along with nearly 2,500 other Canadians, Denise Robson, Paula Wiltse and Paula Keating will race in Boston this year, but these three are chasing masters titles. The three women are 46, 47 and 48, respectively, putting them in the women’s 45-49 age bracket.

In 2014, two of the three were part of a group Canadian women who swept the podium. Robson finished second in the grouping last year to Canadian Lisa Bentley. The Dartmouth, N.S., mother of three has won her own masters title in Boston before. In 2010 she won the master race in the bracket below her current one. Rounding out the 2014 podium was Wiltse who’s back again in 2015.

Keating, a doctor in Miramichi, N.B., holds a handful of masters distance records in the province, including the marathon record which she’s set, on two occasions, on the Boston course.

The three women will look to repeat Canada’s success in the masters ranks on Monday, Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts. They will wear bibs F108, F109 and F110.

The elite women’s race begins at 9:32 a.m.