A large group of Speed River athletes raced well on Friday and Saturday down in Hillsdale, MI.  The Invitational 5000m had three out of four Speed River athletes come out with PB's.  Kyle Boorsma led the charge with 14:25 for fifth place, followed by Tim Konoval (14:34) Cleve Thorson (14:36) and Allan Brett (14:46).  Cody Murray (9:59) and Max Paquette (10:06) ran the 3000m Steeplechase and Courtney Laurie raced in the 5000m (18:37). The Women's 4 X 800m team of Jenni Vanos, Lindsay Furtado, Courtney Laurie and Rachel Cliff ran 9:34.  The Men's 4 X 800m team of Rob Jackson, Tommy Mosher, Derek Snider and Josh Roundell ran 7:52.

1500m races were on tap for day two (Saturday) at Hillsdale.  In the men's race Speed River had  Josh Roundell (3:57), Derek Snider (3:58), Rob Jackson (4:03) and Tommy Mosher (4:10) and the women had Lindsay Furtado (4:45) and Jenni Vanos (4:52).

Full Results:

http://www.hillsdale.edu/athletics/mens_track/ginarelays/results.asp

Also running on Saturday was Taylor Milne, who ran the 1600m anchor leg for Team Canada at the prestigious Penn Relays.  The Canadian team finished 5th in a very competitive field.  Taylor got the baton, in a difficult, 30m back of the pack and started to make headway and then the pack kicked for home.  Taylor's split was 4:08, which bodes well for running a solo race with a deficit. 

Place	ID	School/Affiliation	Mark	Runners
1	KEN	Kenya	9:29.79	Boaz Cheboiywo (2:54.52), Thomas Musembi (47.67), Jackson Kivuna (1:48.66), Josephat Kithii (3:58.95)
2	USA-r	United States Red	9:30.66	Kevin Hicks (2:53.85), Andrew Rock (46.27), Chris Lukezic (1:48.43), Sean O'Brien (4:02.13)
3	WAS	World All Stars	9:31.67	Christoph Lohse (2:55.76), Brian Steele (46.97), Ismael Kombich (1:44.66), Boniface Songok (4:04.30)
4	USA-b	United States Blue	9:32.12	Nick Symmonds (2:51.19), David Neville (45.56), Jonathan Johnson (1:48.54), Christian Smith (4:06.84)
5	CAN	Canada	9:42.20	Matt Lincoln (2:57.23), Adam Johnson (46.69), Andrew Heaney (1:49.45), Taylor Milne (4:08.85)

Some races can be viewed at www.Flotrack.com

Taylor Milne has been named to represent Canada at the prestigious Penn Relays this coming weekend (April 26^th) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Milne will be running the anchor mile leg on the Canadian distance medley relay team which will be competing in the USA versus the World section of the relays. For Milne, the fourth place finisher in the 1500 meters at last year's Canadian Track and Field Championships, this will mark his third national team appearance.  The 113^th Penn Relays includes over 400 events and is the oldest and arguably most famous track and field competition in North America.

Team Roster-  http://athletics.ca/main.asp?page_url=/display_news.asp?newsid=535

A large group of Speed River athletes will be making the annual pilgrimage down to Hillsdale, Michigan for the Gina Relays.  The event has become a signal of the start of the season to the Speed River group who will been making the trip for their fifth consecutive year.  Highlighting the group will be Allan Brett, Tim Konoval, Cleve Thorson and Kyle Boorsma all of whom will be participating in the invitational 5000 meters.  Also making their seasonal debuts will be Rob Jackson, Rachel Cliff and Jenni Vanos who will all be running legs on the Speed River 4 x 800 meter relay teams as well as the 1500 meters. 

Taylor Murphy ran 1:05:42  to take sixth place overall and the third Canadian spot at the Canadian Half Marathon Championships in Montreal, Quebec today.  Andrew Smith, Matt McInnis and Taylor we're all together at 16.5km mark (51:33) where Smith went on to win in 1:05:19.  The overall winner, Samuel Ndereba, won in 1:03:45 and the overall winner on the women's side was Catherine Ndereba in 1:13:10.  This bodes well for Taylor who is in the middle of a large build-up for the ING Ottawa Marathon in late May. 

Full Results can be found here

Last night saw three Speed River athletes achieve Personal Bests at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, CA.  The night started off with Rob Watson who ran 8:38.72 for fifth place.  This shaved less than a second off his previous best and also got him under the Canadian carding standard.  Next up was Taylor Milne who dipped under the 14 minute barrier in the 5000m with a 13:59.68.  This was a five second PB for Taylor and will set him up well for next weekend's race at the Penn Relays.  Finishing off the great night of racing (at 10:50PM PT start time) was Eric Gillis in the 10 000m.  Eric ran very well to knock off 26 seconds from his personal best to get fourth place in 28:16.98.  That time ranks him as the 12th fastest Canadian ever.  This time is also less than seven seconds from the Olympic B standard (28:10.00).    Eric will be looking to achieve, at least, the B standard in two weeks time at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford University.

Full Results can be found at http://www.mtsacrelays.com/archives/2008/results/uo/index.htm

You can also watch the races at http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/coverage.php?c=245&id=13330

Mt. SAC will be aired live via www.flotrack.com this upcoming weekend.  Catch Rob Watson in the Steeplechase (10:50pm EST), Taylor Milne in the 5000m (12:15AM EST) and Eric Gillis in the 10 000m (1:50AM EST).  The races will be aired quite late for East Coast Time and will also be available to watch at a later point.

This will mark the 2008 outdoor track debut of Rob and Eric.  Rob has had two great road race results in the past month at The Bay and Back 5km and Harry's Spring Run-Off 8km, placing 1st and 2nd respectively.  Eric has been training in Flagstaff, AZ at 7000 feet for the past month and is looking forward to kicking off the track season.   Taylor Milne will be looking on improving from his 5000m a couple of weeks ago at Raleigh Relays.

Start lists and Results can/will be found at http://relays.mtsac.edu/

Taylor Murphy will be running the Canadian Half Marathon Championships this Sunday in Montreal, QC. 

From Athletics Canada: http://www.athletics.ca/page.asp?id=292

From the Guelph Mercury http://news.guelphmercury.com/Sports/article/317050

JOHN MARSDEN

It is harder to get into the Olympics in Canada than anywhere else in the world.

The Olympics accept one athlete from each country who ranks in the top 100 in their sport. If you have multiple athletes who are in the top 30, you can send three.

Athletics Canada has a higher standard, requiring that you be ranked in the top 16. And you have to prove it, now. And prove it a second time, just in case the first one was a fluke. And you have to be the fastest in the country, on the day of the national championships.

This policy has been designed to satisfy the armchair athletes who watch the Olympics on TV and complain about our medal count.

We, as a culture, have become self-indulgent. The commercial world encourages us to spend money on ourselves, to live in comfort and take it easy. The consequences of this are easy to see. It produces obesity and diabetes. It does not produce distance runners.

It takes 10 years to bring a distance runner to an international level. At university graduation, a distance runner is only half-formed. The following years are ones of hard work and discipline, involving the sacrifice of the comforts and material benefits of our society.

In the world of distance running, the developed world has fallen behind the hungry, determined runners of East Africa. For African runners, the discipline of distance running represents a path to prosperity. For North American runners, the path is one of voluntary poverty.

At local races you used to be able to tell who was going to win the race by picking out the Kenyans. If the prize money was three deep, there would be three Kenyans.

The world is changing. Now you have to watch for young runners from Guelph. They are hard to spot before the race -- lean, soft-spoken and modest. During the race they are not hard to find -- up front with the leaders and challenging the East Africans.

A new generation has come to North American distance running. These young athletes have discovered the discipline and satisfaction of long-term athletic training.

Guelph is a centre of excellence for distance running. Several of our athletes, having completed a decade of hard training, are attempting to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

Watch for these names -- Hillary Stellingwerff, Reid Coolsaet, Eric Gillis. They are attempting to qualify for the Olympics in the 1,500 metres, 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres respectively.

Stellingwerff is already ranked in the top 16 in the world, but needs one more race with an A+ standard. Coolsaet and Gillis will attempt to qualify in California at the Mt. SAC relays Friday, after weeks of training at altitude in Arizona. Taylor Milne and Rob Watson will also run qualifying attempts.

These runners have trained on our roads for many years now. They have devoted their lives to this endeavour. No one has made it easy for them, and yet they are about to emerge in the ranks of the world's elite runners. Let's give them our support.

The Guelph Athletics Society is a non-profit organization that supports running in our community, in everything from elementary school programs to our Olympic athletes. The annual Billy Taylor Road Race is a fundraiser for GAS. Everyone is welcome to run April 27 at the University of Guelph. Visit www.guelphvictors.ca/billy for more information.

John Marsden is a local runner. His column appears every other Tuesday. He can be reached at john@tenda.ca.

The World University Cross Country Championships took place on the Mauquenchy racecourse in Haute-Normandie, France on April 6th.  The Canadian team was chosen from the CIS X-C Championships last November in Victoria where Lindsay Carson, Rachel Cliff, Kyle Boorsma and Matt Brunsting all qualified for the Canadian University squad. 

Rachel Cliff finished 28th and Lindsay Carson was 29th in France and they were Canada's second and third scorers behind 26th placer, Leslie Sexton. The Canadian Women's team placed 9th and were only one point behind Portugal.  Rachel and Lindsay have both previously represented Canada at World Cross Country Championships although this was their first FISU (International University Sport Federation) competition.  Kyle Boorsma and Matt Brunsting decided not to participate last weekend, to focus on the outdoor track season and nursing an injury, respectively.

Results and multimedia from the FISU X-C Championships can be found here.