{"id":464,"date":"2012-05-15T16:40:11","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T16:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/?p=464"},"modified":"2012-05-15T16:40:11","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T16:40:11","slug":"ottawa-records-in-jeopardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/news\/ottawa-records-in-jeopardy.htm","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa records in jeopardy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Teyba<\/a>

Teyba Erkesso for Ottawa<\/p><\/div>\n

MAY 15 – OTTAWA – Confirmation of top-ranked runners in the 2012 Tamarack Homes Ottawa Race Weekend is shaping the May 27 marathon into one of the most highly anticipated spectator sports of the season.<\/p>\n

Event records are expected to fall with a strong contingent of Kenyans and Ethiopians dominating the start line again this year in both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s races.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a race people won\u2019t want to miss,\u201d says Manny Rodrigues, Elite Athlete Coordinator for Run Ottawa. \u201cNew and returning athletes combined with a faster race course will make this year\u2019s marathon a memorable one.<\/p>\n

Teyba Erkesso, a 29 year-old Ethiopian, is the favourite to break the women\u2019s three-year-old event record of 2:27:41. She has a solid record that includes winning the 2010 Boston Marathon and a personal best almost four minutes faster than the record.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeyba is familiar with Ottawa after winning our 10k in 2009 and I\u2019m glad to see her move up to try and stamp her name on our marathon,\u201d says Rodrigues. \u201cTeyba is an incredible athlete who I\u2019m hoping will bring the event record under 2:25.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erkesso will get some hard competition from fellow Ethiopian Yeshi Esayias, 26. Since placing third in the 2007 Ottawa marathon in 2:36, she has consistently improved to achieve a personal best of 2:26:00 in Tokyo in February.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the list of top women includes three women who have personal bests under the event record; Ethiopian Biruktawit Degefa, who was second in Ottawa last year, Kenyan Ruth Wanjiru and Russian Alventina Ivanova.<\/p>\n

Ottawa is a lucky town for 28-year-old Laban Moiben of Kenya, who won the men\u2019s Ottawa Marathon last year (2:10:17), placed second in 2010 (2:09:43) and fourth in 2009 (2:14:17).<\/p>\n

\u201cLaban is an exciting runner to watch because he\u2019s never content to let the pace dawdle. With his win in Mumbai in January he showed he is in top form by beating some 2:08 marathoners,\u201d says Rodrigues, \u201cSo, I don\u2019t think it will be a stretch to see a new men\u2019s record considering the competition we\u2019ve lined up against him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this year\u2019s men\u2019s marathon category, six elite runners boast a personal best time that is faster than the current event record of 2:09:33 set by Japanese racer Arata Fujiwara in 2010.<\/p>\n

Kenyan Moses Kigen was considered a dark horse when he took third in the 2010 New York City Marathon. Add in a new personal best of 2:07:45 run in Dubai in February and he\u2019ll be one of the favourites in Ottawa. Kenyan Julius Karinga was only 16 seconds behind Moses in Dubai and will be looking to make his own mark. Also in contention from Kenya are 24-year-old Evans Kiplagat, who has a personal best time of 2:09:22 and Stephen Kibiwott, 26, with a best time of 2:08:02. The Ethiopians\u2019 hope will be spearheaded by 2:07 marathoner Negari Terfa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith so many Kenyans having personal bests under the current event record of 2:09:33, together with four-time champion David Cheruiyot \u2013 a pair of Moroccans and Ethiopians that are knocking on the door \u2013 it\u2019s a recipe for a fast race,\u201d says Rodrigues.<\/p>\n

The Ottawa marathon also serves as the Canadian National Marathon championships. The leading contenders for the men\u2019s national title are R\u00e9jean Chiasson and Giita MacHaria, with personal best times of 2:17 and 2:16 respectively. The leading women are Myriam Grenon, Lisa Avery and Josianne Aboungono.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAY 15 – OTTAWA – Confirmation of top-ranked runners in the 2012 Tamarack Homes Ottawa Race Weekend is shaping the May 27 marathon into one of the most highly anticipated spectator sports of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,22,1,23],"tags":[93,438,439,287,286],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-marathon","category-news","category-ottawa","tag-93","tag-marathon","tag-ottawa","tag-race-weekend","tag-tamarack-homes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}