VIDEO: Kate Van Buskirk wins ATB 5K, misses chance to break the tape
A misjudged sequence at the end of the Around the Bay 5K resulted in the wrong runner getting the opportunity to break the tape as the winner.
Male runners broke both finish line tapes at Around the Bay’s 5K on Sunday morning.
In the men’s race, Ross Proudfoot understandably broke the tape as he crossed the line in first place in 14:44. It was his second straight weekend with a 5K road race victory. The runner up however also managed to break the women’s finish line tape by accident. Kate Van Buskirk, who ran a scorching 16:14 on a chilly Sunday in Hamilton, finished just metres behind a Toronto Olympic Club athlete who inadvertently ran through the traditional tape.
“It’s always tough to get the tape out for the first woman when you’re running against men,” Van Buskirk says. “I like the finish of that race, running down the loading ramp into the arena is a neat aspect of Around the Bay.”
RELATED: You will lo(a)ve how great the prize was for Around the Bay’s last-place finisher.
The narrow finish line area inside FirstOntario Centre in the downtown core of the southern Ontario city forced race officials to try to navigate passing male runners to accommodate Van Buskirk. The Toronto athlete, who won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the 1,500m, finished 50 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Dominika Jamnicky.
Dropped the hammer in the Hammer yesterday. Thx @bayracerun for another awesome event & congrats to everyone who braved the wind for 5&30km! pic.twitter.com/PQAoC04SA7
— Kate Van Buskirk (@K8VBeast) March 27, 2017
RELATED: PHOTOS: Hamilton’s Around the Bay 5K and 30K.
In real-time footage, the Toronto Olympic Club athlete, Teresa Fekensa, appears to veers to his right to avoid the tape. He doesn’t quite veer far enough to the right to avoid the tape, however. Fekensa and Van Buskirk finished within 0.3 seconds of each other. Though the breaking of the winner’s tape is just one small aspect of a road race, given Van Buskirk’s strong winter and spring results, she’ll get that chance again soon.
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More than 6,500 runners competed in the 30K and 5K at Around the Bay, North America’s oldest distance road race.
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