Canadians dominate the podium at world trail championships

Two Canadians finished second and third at the XTERRA world trail running championships in Kualao Ranch, Hawaii, over the weekend on Nov. 24.

Canadian Lucy Smith, the defending champ, was bested by local favourite Polina Babkina, a Hawaii-based Russian athlete. Babkina finished in 1:37:24, 31 seconds ahead of Smith, in the 21K race.

“I’m more of a second-half runner, so I was trying to make up ground in the last few miles,” Smith said in a press release. “I could see [Babkina] toward the end there and it got me going, but she got a little bit too far in front.”

The two have begun a small rivalry. Smith won last year when Babkina made a wrong turn after leading most of the race. Smith finished as the runner-up in 2011.

Meggan Franks, another Canadian, finished third in her XTERRA world championship debut. Franks is the 2013 Canadian mountain running champion and led the Canadian team at the world mountain running championships.

“To get third place in my first time racing here, I can’t complain. I look at the fourth place girl and I know she’s really fast, so I’m happy,” said Franks after the race.

Samantha McGlone, once a standout Canadian triathlete, finished in 1:55:14 as the 19th female.

Patrick Smyth of the United States won the men’s race in 1:16:3 and the top Canadian male was Mike Heiliger who finished in 2:01:26, 129th overall.

The race was host to over 2,000 athletes from 12 countries.

Full results.