The final meet of the series, Saturday, August 21st was yet another fun night down at the track. We had Maurice Tarrant put aside his own interests in taking a 5th Canadian age-group record at the series and instead pace a training mate, Les McNeil for a few laps, before putting the hammer down. He did! And he continued on for a BC Provincial age-group record and close to a Canadian record as well – the current age-group record may be removed form the books – it is under review – which is 23:37, Maurice finished in 24:16.4 – an age-group personal best for himself. Congratulations to Maurice in his 4 Canadian age-group records that he accomplished during the series, nearly a world record in the mile and this BC record in the 5000m.
We also had excellent runs by many others – perhaps too many to name here however, Marcia Stromsmoe ran very strong, Shawn Nelson ran a very big personal best to get to near 15:00-flat. Lucy Smith raced, again nearly a Canadian age-group record, although competing in a mixed, Male/Female race the record would not have counted, but she did lead from lap 2, taking over from eventual second place finisher Michael Lord.
The show of the night was Jim Finlayson and James Lander who duked it out over the final few meters, Lander nipped Finlayson by .6 of a second at the line – 14:45.3 to 14:45.9.
To start the race, Finlayson was drawn out by pacer Trevor O’Brien ( who ran for approximately 2000 of the 5000m). Finlayson had a good lead for sometime, until Lander began to close the gap during the final few laps. He made his biggest gains in the final 400m. It was a very exciting finish!
There were 3 races, all of the 5000m distance. The first race was for athletes who were seeded to likely finish over 20:00 minutes. Richard Bellizz and Don Moffat were the only runners under 20:00 – Bellizz won in 19:30.3 he held his lead throughout, Don Moffatt squeezed under 20 with his furious kick ending it with a 19:59.9.
The second race was for those capable of running 17:00 to 2o:00. Lucy Smith won in 16:59.2 and saw a reluctant Simon Pearson run just for fun as he tries to get back into shape after being down with injury, he finished in 19:31.0 – smiling. Michael Lord ran a 17:17.0 for second and Jeremy Watts 17:29.2 for third place.
Craig Odermatt was the top male master on the night with his finish in 15:32.1.
The night saw a return to action by possibly the most talented athlete on the field, Ryan McKenzie who has an international-class 5000m personal best of 13:30 – he ran for 3000m before dropping out with a mild injury.
