© Copyright – 2012 – Athletics Illustrated

Canadian Dylan Wykes raced the ABN AMRO Rotterdam Marathon Sunday finishing in approximately 2 hours, 10 minutes and 47 seconds, which would be fast enough to qualify him for the 2012 London Olympic Games. The Canadian A+ standard is set at 2:11:29.

Wykes’ 2:10:47 (est) will make him the second-fastest Canadian marathoner of all time. Only Jerome Drayton has run faster. It was Wykes’ second attempt to qualify this year. He finished seventh overall.

“Deepest I have ever dug,” Wykes said on Twitter. “So happy.”

Fellow Canadians Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis have also qualified for the London Olympic with their marathons running 2:10:55 and 2:11:27 respectively. Both Gillis and Coolsaet qualified at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2011. Wykes dropped out of the Lake Biwa Marathon in March around the 26K mark due to stomach pains.

Other top Canadians in Rotterdam were Rob Watson 2:13:35, Lanni Marchant 2:31 and Krista Duchene 2:32.

Conditions were cold and windy.

Overal winner

Yemane Adhane of Ethiopia won the Rotterdam Marathon in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 4 minutes and 48 seconds. Apparently, he pulled away from countryman Getu Feleke in the final mile. Moses Mosop was third.

Mosop set a personal best time of 2:03:06 in finishing second at last year’s Boston Marathon, where times were not recognized by the track governing body because of tailwind and downhill layouts.

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