After the huge haul of medals won by our members at the World Masters Athletics Track & Field Championships in Malaga in September, the small team who travelled to Canada for the WMA Marathon that was incorporated with the popular Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, certainly kept the flag flying as MMAC member Amy Bradley ran on to take the W35 title. The Derbyshire runner was slower than her best time this year.
In the W55 race, Celia Findley SCVAC, came up against the Malaga Half Marathon bronze medallist, Makie Ohler from USA, who took the tile in 3.15.01. Celia’s 3.41.53sec got her the silver medal. The USA provided the overall winner through M40 Oliver Vrambout, 2.34.28sec and Canada’s W40 Krista Duchene was not far behind, 2.36.46, leading the women home. Two M55 took 3rd and 4th places overall, José Perona Sánchez, Spain 2.41.31 and Paul Moran, Ireland, 2.44.34.
The best performance however was the 2.55.22sec run by the M70 American, Gene Dykes, who only just missed the World Best time set by the legendry Ed Whitlock (2.54.48) on the same course back in 2004. On Age Graded, Dykes time equates to a 2.09.47 time. The Open race was won in 2.07.22 by the Kenyan, Kipruto in 2.07.24. Björn Suneson, Sweden, the silver medallist was a full 50 minutes behind Dykes.
World Masters Athletics decided to separate the marathon from their main Championships as potential Cities were often prevented from Bidding due to the prohibitive cost of road closure or simply lack of a safe venue. Toronto is an ideal venue as it attracts a sizeable 4,500 competitors.
Bridget Cushen