Strong showing for Canadians in Houston

Two Canadians opened the year with fast times at the Chevron Houston Marathon on January 18. Thornhill, Ont.’s Lioudmila Kortchaguina roared back from a two-year injury layoff that kept her out of the Beijing Olympics to post a time of 2:30:43, finishing in third place. On the men’s side, Andrew Smith of the Brooks Canada Marathon Project ran a three-minute PB to place fifth overall in 2:16:18. Oakville, Ont.’s Giitah Macharia also entered the race hoping to break his PB of 2:16, but struggled in the final kilometres to finish in 2:21.With their times in Houston, Kortchaguina and Smith hope to secure spots on the Canadian marathon teams going to the world championships in Berlin in August. The overall winners of the Houston race both set course records. Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga ran a world-class 2:07:52 and women’s winner Teyba Erkesso finished in 2:24:23.