World standards for Canadians at Houston half-marathon

A handful of Canadians ran the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships standard today at the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon in Texas.

Houston Half-Marathon

Canadians wreaked havoc for the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championship rankings by producing several sub-1:06 and sub-1:16 performances on Sunday morning at the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon in Texas.

Rob Watson (top Canadian), Brandon Lord, Thomas Toth and Sami Jibril, ran the world half standard of 1:06 while a pair of women, Krista Duchene (top Canadian) and Erin Burrett, bested the 1:16 mark for the women.

The world half-marathon championships are in late March in Cardiff, Wales with the top three athletes from both genders expected to make the Athletics Canada team.

FULL RESULTS

RELATED: Canadian takeover in Texas for the Houston Marathon.

Canadian results

MEN
21. Rob Watson 1:03:58 (Splits: 14:48, 14:50, 15:21, 15:39, 3:20)
24. Brandon Lord 01:04:03 (Splits: 14:53, 15:04,15:15,15:30, 3:21)
30. Thomas Toth 01:04:26 (Splits: 15:26, 15:07, 15:12, 15:26, 3:15)
32. Sami Jibril 01:04:30 (Splits: 15:13, 15:15, 15:19, 15:24, 3:19)

WOMEN
17. Krista Duchene 1:14:26 (Splits: 17:42, 17:31, 17:44, 17:48, 03:41)
20. Erin Burrett 1:14:45 (Splits: 17:38, 17:32, 17:43, 18:06, 3:46)

Out of nowhere (but not for him — he declared for the world champs previously), Toth finished in the top-30 and was one of just three male non-elites to do so on Sunday morning. A Lakefield, Ont. native who attended Cameron University in Oklahoma, Toth vaulted himself into the conversation for the half-marathon world championships. Lelisa Desisa won the men’s race in 1:00:37.

RELATED: Dayna Pidhoresky with Olympic standard in sight for Houston.

This is what the rankings for the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships looked like heading into Sunday morning:

Houston Marathon
Canadian half-marathon rankings (as of Jan. 14).

In the women’s half, Duchene, who already has the Olympic qualifying standard for Canada in the marathon, finished strong to overtake Burrett in the latter stages of the race to finish as the top Canadian.

Mary Wacera won the Houston Half-Marathon in 1:06:29.

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