We finally made it to the
end of 2020 — the strangest year of our lives. Because
of the pandemic, races all over the world were cancelled,
and for a while it looked like we wouldn’t see any
competitions for the final 10 months of the year. Luckily,
that wasn’t the case, and when racing eventually
did make its comeback, it produced so many amazing results.
While 2020 was far from an easy year for anyone, it was
also a year of triumphs for many runners. We can’t
list all of these runs, but here are the top 10.
The Impossible Games
The Impossible Games were the first big
event to be held after COVID-19 hit, and they were a huge
success. The event took place in June, replacing the Oslo
Diamond League, and while it had a limited field of athletes
and competitions, multiple records were broken. Norwegian
hurdler Karsten Warholm set a new 300m hurdle world record,
running 33.78 seconds to beat the previous mark by more
than half a second. Norwegian distance star Jakob Ingebrigtsen
ran to a European 2,000m best, posting a 4:50.01, and
his older brother Filip ran a national 1,000m record of
2:16.46. Finally, fellow Norwegian Sondre Nordstad Moen
beat the European 25,000m record with a final time of
1:12:46.5. The Impossible Games were quite the way to
revamp the 2020 season.
The women’s half-marathon
This year saw plenty of action in the
women’s half-marathon. The season started off with
a world record from Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh,
who ran 1:04:31 at the RAK Half Marathon in the United
Arab Emirates. In September, Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir
beat the women-only half-marathon world record in Prague,
clocking a 1:05:34 finish. Only a month later, she ran
to the win at the World Half-Marathon Championships, where
she beat her own women-only record, this time posting
a 1:05:16.
Cheptegei’s Monaco 5Ks
Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei ran in
Monaco on two occasions in 2020, both times running 5K.
His first race came in February, when he ran to a 5K road
world record of 12:51. Several months later in August,
he returned to Monaco, this time to contest 5K on the
track. Just like he did at the start of the year, Cheptegei
set a world record over 5,000m, running 12:35.36 to beat
Kenenisa Bekele‘s record of 12.37.35.
The London Marathon
Just like the Impossible Games marked the comeback of
track and field, the London Marathon was the first big
marathon to be run during the pandemic. It attracted a
stacked elite-only field that included the likes of world
record holders Eliud Kipchoge and Brigid Kosgei, both
of whom were the main pre-race favourites. Kosgei managed
to live up to those expectations, taking the win in 2:18:58,
but Kipchoge struggled to a 2:06:49 finish. Ethiopia’s
Shura Kitata sprinted to the win in 2:05:41.
NN Valencia World
Record Day
NN Valencia World Record Day lived up to its name as Cheptegei
and Letesenbet Gidey ran to world records in the 10,000m
and 5,000m. Gidey kicked off the night in Valencia with
a 5,000m world record of 14:06.65, beating the previous
mark set by Tirunesh Dibaba in 2008. Cheptegei set his
third world record of 2020, running 26:11.00 to beat Kenenisa
Bekele‘s long-held 10,000m record of 26:17.53.
The Marathon Project
The Marathon Project was one of the biggest events on
the 2020 running calendar. It attracted around 100 of
the best marathoners from across North America, and it
made for a pair of exciting races. American Marty Hehir
won the men’s race in a massive PB of 2:08:59, and
Sara Hall smashed the rest of the field to take the women’s
win in 2:20:32.
Sara Hall runs
ahead of fellow American star Molly Huddle.
Continuing off The Marathon Project, Hall‘s season
deserves its own spot on this list. After dropping out
of the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February, she ran
two more marathons, first in London and then at The Marathon
Project in Arizona. She broke her PB at both of these
races, first running to a second-place finish at the London
Marathon in a time of 2:22:01. At the time, this was the
sixth-fastest time in U.S. history. Only two months later,
though, she posted an even quicker time, running 2:20:32
in Arizona, which is the second-fastest time in the American
rankings, less than 30 seconds behind Deena Kastor‘s
national record.
One-hour records
At the Brussels Diamond League in September, Mo Farah
and Sifan Hassan broke the men’s and women’s
one-hour records. Farah ran 21.33 kilometres in 60 minutes
to beat Haile Gebrselassie’s 2007 record by 45 metres.
Hassan beat the women’s record by a much larger
margin, running 18.930 kilometres to better Dire Tune‘s
record, which she set in 2008, by 413 metres.
World Half Marathon Championships
As already mentioned, Jepchirchir won the women’s
race at the World Half Marathon Championships in Poland.
She had to fight for the win until the very end, only
beating second-place Melat Yisak Kejeta of Germany by
two seconds in 1:05:18 and bronze medallist Yalemzerf
Yehualaw of Ethiopia by three seconds. The men’s
race was also tight, with Jacob Kiplimo taking the win
in a Ugandan national record of 58:48. Kenya’s Kibiwott
Kandie came in second in 58:54 and third went to Ethiopia’s
Amedework Walelegn 59:08.
Valencia madness
Kandie got his revenge on Kiplimo at the Valencia Half-Marathon
in December, not just taking the win, but setting the
world record as well. Kandie ran to an incredible finish
of 57:32 to become the first person to run a sub-58-minute
half-marathon. He led Kiplimo and two other runners to
sub-58 results in what was one of the best races of 2020.
Note: You’ll notice
there are no Canadians on this list. Since so many Canucks
had stellar seasons in 2020, we’ve made a separate
list of Canadian accomplishments.
Year
in review: the top Canadian running performances of 2020
In an incredibly difficult year, Canada's elite athletes
still managed to put on some amazing performances
It has been a difficult year. Instead of major marathons,
Olympic trials and the Olympics themselves, we got race
cancellations, lockdowns and quarantines. Despite this,
our Canadian athletes still managed to set PBs, break
records and prove their world-class calibre. In a year
marred by tragedy, let’s look back at the top Canadian
moments in Canadian running in 2020.
Team Canada finishes
third at Big’s Backyard Ultra World Championships
Led by Montreal’s Stephanie
Simpson, team Canada competed virtually against 21 different
countries on their own course in Kelowna, B.C. Simpson
completed 43 hours of running, which put her 21st overall.
Alberta runner Matt Shepard was the second Canadian, running
for 42 hours, followed by Chelsey Topping, who ran 40
hours. Despite bad weather and lots of rain in Kelowna,
Team Canada still managed a podium finish. For the full
results, click here.
Canadian 10K Championships
go virtual
The Canadian 10k Championships
have historically taken place over the Ottawa Race Weekend,
but of course in 2020 this was not possible. Instead of
cancelling the race altogether, the event was moved to
a virtual format, where elite runners had a 12-hour window
on July 1 to complete a 10K course of their choosing (with
some stipulations). Our Canadian elites proved that it’s
possible to run a killer time without the crowds, and
Natasha Wodak took the win on the women’s side in
32:41, a mere 10 seconds behind her winning time from
2019. Justin Kent was the men’s winner in 28:52,
followed closely behind fellow B.C. runner Luc Bruchet,
who ran 29:17.
John Pockler sets
a new Bruce Trail FKT
On Sunday, September 20,
John Harrison Pockler ran the 890-kilometre Bruce Trail
in a record time of nine days and 17 hours, beating Adam
Burnett’s previous record by four hours. Thanks
to trail re-routings, closures and construction, Pockler’s
Garmin tracker actually showed that he ran 944 km, making
his record that much more impressive. Each day he was
on the trail for about 17 hours, running a daily average
of 94K.
Rory Linkletter’s
half-marathon debut
Rory Linkletter started 2020
off in a big way, finishing his first half-marathon in
1:01:44, only 16 seconds off the Canadian record. This
came only a few months after his impressive 2:16 marathon
debut at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
Terri Biloski is
the first finisher in Laz Lake’s GVRAT 1,000K
The runner from St. Thomas,
Ont., was the first official finisher of Laz Lake’s
Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee. She completed the
1,000K distance in 11 days and 20 hours, finishing ahead
of nearly 20,000 other participants. For those of you
doing the math, that means she covered an average of 85K
per day for two weeks straight. (Later in the year, Biloski
joined Team Canada at Big’s Backyard Ultra World
Championships, which finished third after Belgium and
the U.S.)
Natasha Wodak sets
Canadian women’s half-marathon record
On January 18, Natasha Wodak
became the first Canadian woman to run a sub-1:10 half-marathon,
with a time of 1:09:41. This came only one month after
Rachel Cliff broke her own Canadian half-marathon record
of 1:10:06.
Andrea Seccafien
breaks Canadian half-marathon record
The half-marathon mania didn’t
stop there. A mere three weeks after Wodak broke Cliff’s
record, Andrea Seccafien ran a blazing 1:09:38, becoming
the second Canadian woman to run under 70 minutes and
beating Wodak’s time by three seconds. This was
the third time in only seven weeks that the Canadian record
was taken down.
Tristan Woodfine
runs Olympic standard at London Marathon
The runner from Cobden,
Ont., ran the race in 2:10:51, a two-minute personal best
and 40 seconds under the Olympic standard of 2:11:30.
The elite-only event had runners complete 2.1K laps around
London’s St. James Park. They had to run the loop
19.6 times to complete the entire distance. Woodfine’s
result is even more impressive when considering the terrible
weather conditions, the course and the lack of spectators.
Ben Preisner’s
finish at The Marathon Project
In another impressive debut
performance, Ben Preisner ran an incredible 2:10:17 at
the Marathon Project in Chandler, Ariz. He was the first
Canadian across the line, finishing in eighth place, and
his time was well under the Olympic standard of 2:11:30.
This puts him in an excellent position to be named to
the Tokyo 2021 Olympic team.
Natasha Wodak’s
finish at The Marathon Project
Wodak continued her incredible
year by setting a nine-minute personal best at The Marathon
Project. Her time of 2:26:19 is now the second-fastest
time in Canadian history, and it is far faster than the
Olympic standard of 2:29:30. Her last marathon was in
2013, but this new time puts her in a very strong position
to be selected to the Tokyo 2021 team.
Malindi Elmore sets
the Canadian marathon record
The 40-year-old finished
the Houston Marathon on January 18 in third place in a
time of 2:24:50. In only her second marathon ever, her
result smashed the previous Canadian record of 2:26:56,
set by Rachel Cliff in 2019. This pretty much guarantees
her a spot on the Tokyo 2021 Olympic team.
Mohammed
Ahmed’s Canadian 5,000 metre record
In perhaps one of the most exciting races of the year,
Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed beat his own 5,000 metre
Canadian record on July 10 at the Bowerman Track Club
Intra-Squad Meet. His time of 12:47.20 not only holds
his spot at the top of the Canadian all-time list, but
it’s also a North American record that puts him
10th all-time in the world. This incredible result has
generated a lot of excitement leading to the Tokyo Olympics
in 2021.
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