Marchant taking on marathon alone

Lanni Marchant Vancouver half-marathon
Lanni Marchant will be Canada’s sole representative in the marathon early Sunday morning in Glasgow, Scotland, at the Commonwealth Games. And we haven’t had such a strong representative in years.

The London, Ont., native broke a 28-year-old national marathon record last fall at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, running 2:28:00. Then this spring she broke the national half-marathon record by running 1:10:47 in Nashville, Tenn.

“I’m feeling pretty good about the race. I have put in some solid training since Boston and am ready to line up and race,” said Marchant in an email.

“Right now it is looking like it will be a rainy day — 70 per cent chance at my last check — so I think I should be safe in terms of the heat.”

Still, the Canadian star will be up against some of the best marathon runners in the world. Kenya, being a member of the Commonwealth, always makes sure the distance events are held to a very high standard. The Kenyan women will send two athletes with 2:22 personal bests, Filomena Cheyech and Caroline Kilel. Their third athlete, Philes Ongori, was forced off the team with a recent injury.

The third place position will be open and with a field of similarly-matched athletes it’s not out of the question to see Marchant in the mix late in the race. She has international experience and, with slow, tactical, championship-style racing her sub-2:30 personal best is a good spot to be.

“The accommodations are great,” said Marchant. “Everything is easily accessible and it is easy to focus on our upcoming events. The athletes village has everything you could need — food, treatment and training centres, and it is very close to the River Clyde which has been great for my last few training runs.”

The marathon in scheduled for 9:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. EDT/1:30 PDT) and can be watched live on CBC.ca.

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