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The Ottawa Marathon weekend wrapped up with the Marathon on Sunday, but also featured a 5K and the Canadian 10K Championships on Saturday evening. Ben Flanagan broke his own national road 10K record of 28:11, which he shared with national marathon record holder Cameron Levins. Flanagan clocked a 28:09 finish for the win. Malindi Elmore won the women’s race which included an elite field that left 15 minutes before the men. Elmore won in the time of 32:50.

Flanagan’s record run

Twenty-nine-year-old Flanagan took off at the sound of the gun with marathon specialist Rory Linkletter and Jeremy Coughler. The three ran together for approximately 5km before Flanagan dropped the pace and created separation. The move left Linkletter and Coughler battling for second place the rest of the way.

Flanagan was one of the few to run a negative split. He passed through 5km in 14:12.

Finishing second was Linkletter who finished in 28:40, which is a three-second personal best. Linkletter has run faster, when he recorded a 28:06 finish in a not-certified event in Salt Lake City in 2021. Taking third was Coughler in the time of 28:55 with a nine-second pb.

Flanagan told Athletics Canada post-race, “It started to get pretty tough at around 8km. But that is when you start seeing the crowd, so it got loud. I was just trying to feed off the energy, try to catch the pace car and try to use any motivation I could to stay on the gas. Last year in the final stretch I was waving and celebrating, this year, I didn’t and I just barely got under.”

The Kitchener, Ontario native is a three-time winner of the Falmouth Classic and the 2018 NCAA 10,000m champion.

Flanagan also holds the national 5K record at 13:26, which he set in Boston last year.

Elmore’s win

Elmore took the lead early and held it the entire way. She pressed the pace throughout, scattering the elite field. She said that the effort “hurt very much” in a post-race interview. Like most competitors, she ran a positive split.

She told Athletics Illustrated, “The performance met my expectation to win a Canadian 10km Championships which was my goal. I am looking forward to running a 10km some time not in a marathon build!”

Cleo Boyd took second in 33:12, while Natasha Wodak rolled in third place in 33:21.

It was a return to serious racing for Lanni Marchant, the former national marathon record holder and 2016 Rio Olympian. The now 40-year-old lawyer clocked in at 33:31 to take fourth place.

For Elmore, the run was just shy of her personal best of 32:44 which she set in Vancouver in 2019 at the Eastside 10K. The Kelowna native was named to Team Canada for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. She will be running the marathon. Elmore finished ninth in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Marathon.

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