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Canada’s Cameron Levins nips under the Tokyo Olympic standard with just one week to spare. He ran a 2:10:13 in Styria, Austria Sunday morning. It was a last-ditch effort to make his second Canadian Olympic team.
Men's 🇨🇦Marathon News: @CamLevins goes 2:10:13 this morning to achieve Olympic standard at S7 Marathon in Styria, Austria. @TeamCanada @AthleticsCanada pic.twitter.com/Kqp3CQoja2
— Jim McDannald, DPM (@jmcdannald) May 23, 2021
Having raced in very wet conditions, he was likely capable of running faster than his national record of 2:09:25 on the day. The Vancouver Island-raised athlete may have benefitted from growing up in the temperate rain forest near Campbell River, BC.
Levins attempted to run under the standard of 2:11:30 two other times during the past nine months. In October, he was on pace for a new national record and appeared to be headed for a 2:08 finish in London, UK, however, he dropped out late in the race. Again, in Chandler, Arizona, in December, he appeared to be in fine form to 20 miles or 32 kilometres before fading hard to a 2:12:15. Styria was his last chance to qualify for Tokyo. Canadian marathon runners have just one more week to make the team. In 2019, he had a rough go in Toronto, the site of his 2018 Canadian record performance. He finished that race in the time of 2:15:01.
Levins held the national 10,000m record for a spell too. The 2012 London Olympian broke Simon Bairu’s record of 27:23.63 in 2015 at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR with a 27:07.51 performance. That record has since been improved by Mo Ahmed to 26:59.35.
