© Copyright – 2021 – Athletics Illustrated
Two-time Olympian, Natasha Wodak, has hired Dr. Trent Stellingwerff as her coach after the retirement of Lynn Kanuka.
Natasha Wodak
Wodak competed in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in the 10,000m event and then in Tokyo in the marathon finishing 13th in the streets of Sapporo.
The 39-year-old Vancouver athlete is the former national record holder in the 10,000m event with a personal best of 31:41.59 which she ran at the Payton Jordan Classic in May of 2015. She also was the first Canadian to break the 70-minute benchmark in the half-marathon running the 2020 Houston Half Marathon in the time of 69:41. The Prairie Inn Harrier Running Club member first set a national best (not kept as an official record) in the 8K road distance from the 2013 Pioneer 8K in Saanichton, BC (Greater Victoria), which continues to stand at 25:28.
In December 2020, Wodak gave her first real effort in the marathon at The Marathon Project in Chandler, AZ, a one-off impromptu marathon during the pandemic in lieu of available events. It become an important Olympic qualifying event for Canadians. She ran the second-fastest Canadian marathon all-time, behind only Kelowna’s Malindi Elmore. Elmore set her time at the 2020 Houston Marathon at 2:24:50, while 11 months later Wodak ran 2:26:19.
NEW COACH ANNOUNCEMENT‼️@TStellingwerff!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with Trent 🙏 and super excited to see what we can do together in the next few years! pic.twitter.com/WwMl2tDTC1
— Natasha Wodak (@tasha_wodak) November 9, 2021
Wodak won the gold medal during the 2019 Lima Panamerican Games in the 10,000m event clocking a 31:55.17 in the process. Her 31:58.19 fifth-place finish at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games may be one of the best performances of her career. She ran out of track, but kicked hard and was closing the gap on the medallist late in the race. Or her Olympian marathon performance with the 13th place finish in the heat and in the time of 2:31:41 could also be considered her best.
Dr. Trent Stellingwerff
Dr. Trent Stellingwerff is a noted Canadian exercise physiologist, who works at the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific in Victoria, BC, which is located at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence.
Stellingwerff has advised, coached and co-coached several of Canada’s top middle and long-distance athletes including Melissa Nriagu-Bishop, the national 800m record holder and Beijing World Championships silver medallist, former national record holder in the marathon, Lanni Marchant, and his wife Hilary Stellingwerff, a 2012 London Olympian and current head coach of the University of Victoria Vikes track and field and cross-country teams.
Stellingwerff is a former track and field athlete who competed in the NCAA for Cornell University. He was selected as co-captain. He also competed in the former CIS (now USport) for the University of Guelph, where he twice earned All-Canadian honours.
Stellingwerff was an academically decorated student who made the Dean’s list at Cornell and was twice awarded Academic All-Canadian status during the years 2001 and 2002. In 2006 he took a position in Switzerland for the Nestle Research Centre (Powerbar) as a Senior Research Scientist in Sport Nutrition, Energy, and Performance. Stellingwerff has also served as the Nutrition and Physiology Consultant for Athletics Canada.
Currently, he serves as a senior advisor, innovation and research at CSI Pacific, which he joined 2011. In this role, he directs several different research projects across different sport performance discipline areas, with Master’s, PhD, and Post-Doctorate students. Stellingwerff is also the Sport Science, Sports Medicine & Innovation Lead for Athletics Canada. He has also provided physiology expertise to Canada’s National Rowing, Triathlon, and Mountain bike teams.
His primary sport and research focuses are in the field of physiology and nutrition interactions, as well as environmental (altitude and heat) expertise, and has previously served on Own The Podium’s (OTP) National I&R Advisory Council and currently co-chairs OTP’s Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) working group.
Lynn Kanuka
Lynn Kanuka is the former national 3000m record holder with her 8:24.14 performance in Los Angeles in 1984. She competed in the 1984 LA Olympic Games earning a bronze medal. She also earned Commonwealth gold and bronze as well as a 1989 World Cross Country Championships bronze medal.
