Monday, May 25, 2009
OTTAWA – Reid Coolsaet of Hamilton, ON and Lioudmila Kortchaguina of Thornhill, ON were crowned 2009 Canadian Marathon Champions yesterday in Ottawa while Josh Cassidy of Oakville, ON and Clayton Gerein of Pilot Butte, SK took the Canadian Wheelchair titles.
Competing in his first ever marathon Coolsaet won the Canadian title in a time of 2 hours 17 minutes and 9 seconds; a mark which makes him eligible to be nominated to the 2009 World Cup team later this summer. Finishing behind Coolsaet in the men’s race was Jason Warick of Saskatoon, SK and Christian Mercier of Quebec City, QC claiming the silver in 2:24:24 and the bronze in 2:31:22 respectively.
In the women’s race Lioudmila Kortchaguina captured the gold winning her third national title (2006, 2007, 2009) in the marathon. Second place went to Myriam Grenon of Longueuil, QC in 2:51:08 and third place was won by Tara Struyk of Edmonton, AB in 3 hours.
The Ottawa Marathon also served as the final qualifying event for the 2009 Marathon World Cup team. Athletics Canada teamed up with the Ottawa Marathon and the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in an effort to qualify teams for the 2009 Marathon World Cup being contested within the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics held in Berlin this August.
The following athletes are currently in a position to be officially named to the team at the end of July pending proof of fitness and competitive readiness.
|
Men |
Hometown |
Women |
Hometown |
|
Jon Brown, 2:12:27 |
Victoria, BC |
Stephanie Hood, 2:35:09 |
Victoria, BC |
|
Reid Coolsaet, 2:17:09 |
Hamilton, ON |
Lioudmila Kortchaguina, 2:30:43 |
Thornhill, ON |
|
Danny Kassap, 2:15:20 |
Toronto, ON |
Cheryl Murphy, 2:43:00 |
Victoria, BC |
|
Giitah Macharia, 2:16:54 |
Oakville, ON |
Tara Quinn-Smith, 2:33:57 |
Toronto, ON |
|
Matt McInnes, 2:16:58 |
Ottawa, ON |
Nicole Stevenson, 2:41:01 |
Toronto, ON |
|
Andrew Smith, 2:16:14 |
Toronto, ON |
|
|
|
Dylan Wykes, 2:16:20 |
Kingston, ON |
|
|
Note: Above are the athletes currently in a position to be nominated if a full team of four athletes is selected.
In the open wheelchair championships Josh Cassidy won the race followed by Michel Filteau; Clayton Gerein won the quad division championship.
For more information including full results from the 2009 Canadian Marathon Championships please visit: www.athletics.ca/ottawa2009
-AC-
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