A Kenyan man repeated as winner of the Vancouver Marathon yesterday.
Thomas Omwenga shaved almost 10 minutes off his winning time from last year, finishing the 42-kilometre race in a time of 2:15:59.
“There was rainfall last year,” said Omwenga, who is from Kenya, but trains in Florida. “This time the weather was cool and calm. It wasn’t hot. It wasn’t cold. It was nice weather for running.”
In all 12,815 people from 35 countries took part in the event, which included a full and a half marathon, a kids’ fun run and an eight-kilometre race.
“I came to this race just to improve my morale,” said California’s Mary Akor, who was the top female runner with a time of 2:37:54.
Akor, who also won the race in 2004, said she had a terrible race two weeks ago at the U.S. Olympic trials, where she failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games.
“It was depressing for me because I really put my heart into it. I was in Kenya training for three months. I was really discouraged.”
Toronto’s Predrag Mladenovic was the top Canadian male with a time of 2:27:33 and Vancouver’s Ellie Greenwood was the top Canadian woman with a time of 2:55:28.
