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The first day of the 2015 Canadian Track and Field Championships wrapped up with a pair of 5,000-metre races. The women’s race featured Canadian marathon and half-marathon record holder Lanni Marchant and one of the country’s best 1500m runners in Nicole Sifuentes; both Olympians. The number one seeded athlete Jessica O’Connell was a late scratch apparently due to minor injuries.

Marchant and Sifuentes sat near the lead with Natasha Labeaud, Lindsay Carson in-tow and Tamara Jewett leading for much of the tactical race; she later dropped out. The favourites bided their time until Marchant began to stretch the field out after 11 minutes had passed. Forty-five seconds later, while on the back stretch, the lead was down to three athletes with Marchant continuing to stretch the field out and Sifuentes in second still patiently waiting. Labeaud was positioned in third, while Carson was hanging onto fourth.

With 15:00 showing on the clock and 400m to go, it was down to Marchant and Sifuentes, whose stride appeared effortless and smooth. Seconds after they passed the 200m mark and 15:49 showing on the clock, Sifuentes, the 1500m specialist, unleashed a kick that Marchant could not respond to. In fairness, Marchant was four days removed from winning a half marathon that featured significant downhill sections.

Sifuentes won in the time of 16:17.31 while Marchant finished second in 16:21.75 and Labeaud cross the line in 16:26.12.

The main event was the men’s 5,000m featuring two 2012 London Olympians in Cameron Levins and Mohammed Ahmed. As expected Levins won the race with a fast final lap and an unmatchable final 80m; however Ahmed made things interesting, appearing to hold Levins off until Levins – appearing completely relaxed – let go a furious finishing kick. Worth mentioning was Luc Bruchet finishing the race 11 seconds back of Levins, he had one of the fastest final kicks on the night.

It was a tactical race that was led by Speed River Track and Field Club’s Tristan Woodfine for nearly nine minutes. Typically a lead like Woodfine’s would cost the athlete later in the race. He finished in 14:28.90, a new personal best time. He entered the race seeded with a best from June 12th at 14:29.85. Geoffrey Martinson held on strong to finish in fourth position, moving up from sixth with 800m to go, Martinson, like Sifuentes was a 1500m specialist. Overall both races produced slow times due to tactics and warm temperatures.

There appeared to be inconsistency with lapping in the two races as some athletes moved into lane two as the runners came up from behind, but many of the men continued to run in lane one, forcing Levins and Ahmed to go around them. Jason Dunkerley, a visually impaired runner was in the race with a quide. It was suggested by the race announcer at AthleticsCanada.tv that Dunkerley was permitted into the race, so that he could be exposed to a higher quality field; however, Levins and Ahmed, while attempting to pick up the pace, had to make their way around Dunkerly and the guide. Dunkerley finished in 16:20.84. His  personal best is 15:34.07.

Complete day one results.

Event 412 Men 5000 Meter Run Senior
===============================================================
Canadian: @ 13:13.96 9/1/1998 Jeff Schiebler
Championship: $ 13:25.16 2000 Sean Kaley
World: # 12:37.35 5/31/2004 Kenenisa Bekele, ETH
Name Year Team Finals
===============================================================
Finals

1 Levins, Cameron 89 Unattached B 13:51.34
2 Ahmed, Mohammed 91 Niagara Olym 13:52.84
3 Bruchet, Lucas 91 Point Grey T 14:02.58
4 Martinson, Geoffrey 86 Prairie Inn 14:07.38
5 Hubers, Ben 88 Unattached – 14:12.12
6 Corrigan, Peter 89 Running Room 14:12.88
7 Britt, Barry 90 Speed River 14:16.71
8 Woodfine, Tristan 93 Speed River 14:28.90
9 Johnson, Matt 92 Running Room 14:40.83
10 Noel-Hodge, Ryan 89 McGill Olympic Club 14:41.97
11 Nixon, Andrew 91 Speed River 14:43.22
12 Morgan, Blair 93 Physi-Kult Kingston 14:45.21
13 Hunt, Theo 88 Point Grey T 14:47.77
14 White, Declan 92 Langley Mustangs 14:48.05
15 Childs, Clifford 89 Running Room 14:53.85
16 Raymond, Benjamin 92 Dynamique de Laval 15:02.30
17 Weir, Ben 95 Uvic Track Club 15:17.38
18 Labranche, Jean-Daniel 91 C. A. Univer 15:26.19
19 Justinen, Roman 94 U OF C Athle 15:27.56)
20 * Mohammed, Ibrahim 95 Riversdale A 15:29.60)
21 Shamsi, Bilal 93 Coastal Track Club 15:56.90

22 Cook, Jack 67 Fast Trax Ru 17:34.75

Women’s Results

Event 411 Women 5000 Meter Run Senior
================================================================
Canadian: @ 14:54.98 8/30/2003 Courtney Babcock
Championship: $ 15:08.90 2003 Emilie Mondor
World: # 14:11.15 6/6/1993 Tirunesh Dibaba, ETH
Name Year Team Finals
================================================================
Finals

1 Sifuentes, Nicole 86 Unattached-Manitoba 16:17.32
2 Marchant, Lanni 84 London Weste 16:21.76
3 Labeaud, Natasha 87 Unattached B 16:26.13
4 Carson, Lindsay 89 Athletics Yukon 16:46.23
5 Thiel, Danielle 92 Legacy Athletics 16:56.72
6 Macarthur, Sarah 90 U OF C Athle 16:57.90
7 Latraverse, Frique 93 C. A. Univer 17:08.63
8 Sumner, Claire 95 U OF C Athle 17:13.41
9 Myrand, Melanie 85 McGill Olympic Club 17:28.61
10 Therrien, Brittany 90 Unattached B 17:53.32
11 Trofimenkoff, Vanessa 94 MAC Track 18:13.93
12 St-Gelais, Sabrina 91 Saint-Lauren 18:14.18
— Jewett, Tamara 90 U Toronto TC DNF

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