By: Jonathan Yue
After numerous road races this season, Malindi Elmore has finally got a win to her name. Having finished third in the Vancouver Sun Run, second at the Victoria Time-Colonist Garden City 10K and ninth at the Canadian 10K Championships, she is back in the win column.
“It’s always an honour and privilege to win a Canadian Championship race,” said Elmore. “My training went well and it’s always nice to know there is a strong field to keep things honest and to make sure that I run hard throughout the race.”
The Canadian Half Marathon Championships, which took place through the streets of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba, saw Elmore set new personal best of 1:11:09 improving her previous time of 1:15:35. The Canadian Half Marathon title is also her first win since 2015, when she won the Toronto Half Marathon.
With the energetic crowd along the way, Elmore said that it helped her throughout the race and improved her mindset as the race went on. “It’s my first time in Winnipeg and the crowd along the course was very supportive and friendly. It was fun to finish in the stadium and to hear the cheers of the crowd,” said Elmore.
Joining her in the top three were Vancouver Half Marathon winner Dayna Pidhoresky (1:14:06) in second place and Robyn Mildren (1:15:36) finished closely behind in third.
On the men’s side, Tristan Woodfine set a personal best of his own, running the half marathon in 1:04:46, faster than his previous time of 1:06:18.
His goal coming in was to win the race so to come out of it doing just that, it gives him confidence moving forward. “I knew the field had some strong guys so the plan was to just race up front and hopefully a time would come with it, and it did,” said Woodfine. “The course was great and there were a lot of people cheering so that definitely helped in the back half of the race.”
Thomas Toth, a native of Lakefield, Ont., made his 2019 Canadian return, running 1:05:29 for second place, just beating Chris Belastrini who came in third with a time of 1:05:57.
With a great race now under his belt, Woodfine looks to build off the experience moving onto a fall marathon and maybe even back at the course next year with everything falling into place. “Coming away with the half marathon national title and a good time is reassuring that things are progressing well towards the fall.”
Top 5 Canadian Men
Tristan Woodfine – 1:04:46
Thomas Toth – 1:05:29
Chris Balestrini – 1:05:57
Dylan Wykes – 1:07:39
Daniel Heschuk – 1:07:48
Top 5 Canadian Women
Malindi Elmore – 1:11:09
Dayna Pidhoresky – 1:14:06
Robyn Mildren – 1:15:36
Melanie Myrand – 1:16:21
Claire Sumner – 1:16:52
