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American Scott Fauble and Canadian Rory Linkletter have left Northern Arizona Elite (NAZ).
Fauble who joined the group after university has run the marathon as fast as 2:09:42. He was coached by Ben Rosario at NAZ He set his personal best in Dec. 2020 at the Marathon Project that took place in Chandler, AZ. The 30-year-old ran the Boston Marathon in the time of 2:09:09 in 2019. However, when it came down to making the Olympic team for the Tokyo Games, he needed to finish top-three at the US Olympic Trials in Atlanta, GA in Feb. 2020. He finished 12th in the time of 2:12:39.
The top three were Galen Rupp 2:09:20, Jacob Riley 2:10:02, and Abdi Abdirahman in the time of 2:10:03.
Linkletter Has run as fast as 2:12:52 and 2:12:54. The former at this month’s California International Marathon in Sacramento. The latter took place in Chandler, AZ last Dec. The Olympic qualifying standard is under 2:11:30. Several Canadians ran faster than the 25-year-old Linkletter during the qualification period including Ben Preisner, Tristan Woodfine, Trevor Hofbauer, and Cameron Levins. To get within a sniff of these four athletes, he will need to take two minutes off of his time.
Levins holds the national record at 2:09:25, while Hofbauer has run 2:09:51, Preisner 2:10:17 and Woodfine 2:10:51.
Linkletter appears to have the talent required, as he has run the half-marathon as fast as 1:01:44 and the 10,000m in 28:12.42.
For Canadians, there are two global competitions for which to qualify in 2022. There is the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, OR, and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK.
Expect there to be some great efforts in late winter or spring 2022 to qualify for either of these events.