Weekend highlight: Ottawa 10K

Those who follow the Canadian running scene closely had much to celebrate this weekend. The Ottawa 10K race on Saturday evening was one of the big highlights of the year so far. Canadians ran incredibly well upholding their reputations are stars of long distance running.

Runners in the women’s race brought their A game giving fans an incredible race to watch. For the second year in a row, a Kenyan athlete broke both the tape and the course record. Gladys Cherono, 32, won the 10K in a time of 30:56. That was 25 seconds faster than last year’s course record set by Mary Keitany. Cherono also set a new PB breaking her old one by one second.

There was extra hype this year surrounding the 10K because not only did it feature a strong field of international elites, but it also hosted the Canadian 10K Championships. Lanni Marchant and Natasha Wodak were set to battle it out and once again they did not disappoint. Both women have been churning out impressive results this year, have already hit Worlds and Olympic qualifying times and are much loved by those in the race scene.

Marchant was the first Canadian woman to finish. She ran a 31:49 race and placed third overall. Wodak wasn’t far behind her running a time of 31:59. She was fourth in the race. Another impressive result was Laura Batterick’s. Batterick was the third Canadian woman in running a 33:33. She placed ninth overall, meaning there were three Canadians in the top ten.

“@AthleticsCanada: MT @alnbrookes: 2015 @AthleticsCanada 10k Road Champions @LJM5252 & @EricGillis42_2k pic.twitter.com/fBLUprhgFZ”

— Lanni marchant (@LJM5252) May 24, 2015

The men’s race was equally as exciting. First to make it to the finish was also a Kenyan runner. Nicholas Bor, 28, ran a fast 10K finishing with a time of 27:55. The course record still stands at 27:24, which was set in 2009.

Of the Canadian runners, Eric Gillis was first to cross the line making him the Canadian 10K Champion. He ran a 28:58 race placing seventh overall. Right behind him was Kelly Wiebe in 29:08. Matt Loiselle came in tenth place running 30:27.

The Ottawa 10K is one of four IAAF Gold Label 10K races. It is the only Canadian 10K to have earned this status. It was added to the Ottawa race weekend in 1986 to boost registration numbers as they were dipping and it seems to have worked. There were over 11,000 finishers in the 10K alone in 2015.