On the ultimate day of competitors on the 2023 World Athletics Championships, the Canadian trio of Rory Linkletter, Ben Preisner and Justin Kent all positioned throughout the prime 30 of the lads’s marathon on a scorching and humid day in Budapest.
Main the Canadian contingent was the seasoned Linkletter, enterprise his seventh marathon and his second consecutive world championship marathon, having withdrawn from the London Marathon earlier this 12 months because of harm. Linkletter ran back-to-back 66-minute half-marathon splits, which resulted within the second-fastest marathon of his profession to put nineteenth total in 2:12:16.
“This was essentially the most gratifying marathon I’ve ever run,” Linkletter advised Canadian Working. “I believe this was the very best marathon of my life.”
Linkletter stated he believed that he couldn’t have executed the race any higher given the situations, and he felt he gave his all. He was in sixtieth place on the 10K mark and remarkably superior 41 positions over the ultimate 32 kilometres. “I felt the very best I ever felt in the midst of a marathon; the course was distinctive,” Linkletter said.
Kent and Preisner approached the race equally to Linkletter. “We labored collectively to make good choices, contemplating the situations, and aimed to go as many runners as we may within the second half,” Kent said throughout a post-race interview. Like Linkletter, they each managed to ascend virtually 40 positions in the course of the latter a part of the race. Preisner was twenty eighth total on the world championship marathon for the second consecutive 12 months (2:15:02), whereas Kent was thirtieth in his championship debut (2:15:26).
“Representing Canada within the marathon was a dream come true,” Kent stated. “Sharing the expertise with Ben and Rory was actually unimaginable.”
All three Canadians executed strategic and tactful races as temperatures reached 27 C, which posed difficult situations and led to slower ending occasions. The nice and cozy situations resulted in 25 runners, together with 2022 world champion Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola, not finishing the race.
Uganda’s Victor Kiplangat, a mountain runner and 2022 Commonwealth Video games champion, surged across the 33-kilometer mark and maintained his lead, securing gold for Uganda in 2:08:53. Remarkably, at solely 23 years previous, this marked Kiplangat’s second world title. In 2017, he claimed victory within the males’s race on the World Mountain and Path Working Championships.
Israel’s Maru Teferi executed a late surge, advancing 4 positions within the ultimate 5 kilometres to realize silver in 2:09:12. Ethiopia’s Leul Gebresilase settled for the bronze medal with a time of two:09:19.
The 2023 World Athletics Championships are going down from August 19-27 on the Nationwide Stadium in Budapest, Hungary. All of the motion will probably be delivered to you by Canadian Working and Asics Canada. Observe us on Twitter on Instagram for all issues Staff Canada and up-to-date unique information and content material.
