Because the 2024 Houston Marathon Weekend approaches, the highlight is just not solely on the extremely anticipated half-marathon debut of Canada’s Moh Ahmed, but additionally on the extraordinary competitors amongst 4 Canadian marathoners aiming to earn the Olympic qualifying normal for the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games.

Wodak eyes Olympic normal

Canadian marathon document holder Natasha Wodak leads a robust Canadian contingent in Houston, all chasing the Olympic A regular of two:26:50. Former nationwide crew athletes Leslie Sexton and Lanni Marchant will even be vying for the 2 out there spots on the ladies’s marathon crew.

Wodak holds the quickest Canadian girls’s time within the final two years, however her Canadian document of two:23:12 from the 2022 Berlin Marathon was exterior the Olympic qualifying window. Wodak took one other shot at reaching the time on the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, however heat situations and a tactical race prevented her from incomes a spot in Paris (she completed within the high 15, in  2:30:09).

Sexton returns to the marathon after a break from the space of a 12 months and a half. Sexton ran 2:28 twice in a 10-month interval, profitable the 2021 Philadelphia Marathon and ending as the highest Canadian on the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore. ((she completed thirteenth). With a greatest of two:28:35, she would want to shake off nearly two minutes to solidify her spot in Paris. However the quick Houston course (which she has raced earlier than) might present what she wants.

Additionally returning to the marathon after an extended hiatus is 2016 Olympian Lanni Marchant. The London, Ont., native holds a private greatest of two:28:00 from Toronto in 2013, however there are a number of questions round her health, after racing solely twice in 2023. Marchant would want a career-best efficiency to earn her a spot on the Canadian Olympic crew for 2024.

Malindi Elmore of Kelowna, B.C., is the one Canadian lady to have achieved the Olympic normal of two:26:50 on the 2023 Berlin Marathon. Elmore was additionally the highest North American feminine finisher in 2:23:30, reaching an 80-second private greatest.

Ontario’s Tristan Woodfine takes one other shot

After considering he had a spot on the Canadian Olympic crew for Tokyo, then having it taken from him within the last week of qualifying by Cam Levins and Athletics Canada, Tristan Woodfine is heading to Houston for an additional shot at his dream of being on Crew Canada for the Olympics. Woodfine’s private greatest got here on a chilly and moist day on the 2020 London Marathon, clocking 2:10:51. Since 2020, he has had his struggles with the marathon distance and beating that mark.

After robust luck with the warmth and his abdomen on the 2022 Ottawa Marathon, Woodfine switched coaches and spent a lot of the 2023 season constructing his pace on the roads. He recorded private bests of 14:05 for 5K and 29:06 for 10K. Solely two Canadian males have ever damaged 2:10 within the marathon: Trevor Hofbauer and Levins.

Levins cemented his spot on the Canadian Olympic crew for Paris at his record-setting run on the 2023 Tokyo Marathon. To today, he’s the one Canadian marathoner to have run underneath the lads’s Olympic A regular of two:08:10. (He additionally did so on the 2022 World Championships.)

Learn how to observe

The 2024 Chevron Houston Marathon is scheduled for Jan. 14. It is likely one of the quickest marathon programs in North America; in 2020, Elmore set the earlier Canadian marathon document of two:24:50 there. The final Canadian marathoner to win the Houston Marathon was Mississauga’s Peter Fonseca, who ran 2:11:52 for the win in 1995.

You could find hyperlinks to outcomes, schedules, begin lists and different vital Chevron Houston Marathon information on this web page.