The Virgin London Marathon announced its elite fields on Thursday, with race director David Bedford declaring that the women’s competition is “undoubtedly our strongest ever” and the men’s field “rivals any of those we’ve put together in the last few years.” It’s also one of the strongest Canadian men’s field the race has seen. Among the 22 runners in the men’s elite field, two are Canadian.
Hamilton, Ont.’s Reid Coolsaet is the fastest Canadian on the men’s elite list. The Canadian Running blogger and member of the Speed River club based out of Guelph, Ont., was the top Canadian at this year’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, finishing in 2:11:23 and dipping under the tough Canadian Olympic standard of 2:11:29. Having run a good portion of the Toronto race on his own, Coolsaet has said he’ll be chasing a faster time in London, hoping that he’ll have more company to pull him along.
Coolsaet’s training partner, Eric Gillis of Antigonish, N.S. also plans to line up in London. Gillis finished just behind Coolsaet in Toronto in 2:12:08 and also ran much of the race solo.
Kingston, Ont.’s Dylan Wykes, who won the California International Marathon on December 5 in spectacular style with a near wire-to-wire victory in 2:12:39, is listed in the London field, but will not be taking part.
So we’ll hopefully see two of Canada’s fastest-ever marathoners, both in their prime, toe the line in London on April 17. Naturally, they’ll face some stiff competition, including Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru, defending London winner Tsegaye Kebede, 2:04:48 runner Patrick Macau, world champion Abel Kirui, Bazu Worku (2:05:25 PB) and Jaouad Gharib (2:05:27).
There are no Canadians in the women’s elite field, which includes last year’s winner Liliya Shobukhova and an incredible 14 women with PBs under 2:24.
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