It’s been 17 years since Canada’s second-fastest marathoner, Malindi Elmore, gained and competed in her final Canadian Cross-Nation Championships, however on Saturday, the 43-year-old marathoner returns to the self-discipline, starting her preparations for the 2024 Olympic marathon in Paris.

In 2006, two months earlier than the discharge of the primary Apple iPhone, Elmore had a dominant win within the ladies’s championship 6K, ending 25 seconds forward of Megan Brown from Guelph, Ont. At the moment, Elmore was coming off an eighth-place end on the 2006 Commonwealth Video games within the 1,500m and her first Olympic Video games in Athens.

Though Elmore’s profession and now most popular distance has modified since 2006, she’s going to check her pace and energy at Mooney’s Bay within the nation’s capital on Saturday in opposition to the perfect up-and-coming feminine distance runners in Canada. Elmore’s choice to run ACXC this yr aligns along with her already secured ticket to the Paris Olympic marathon, identified to be the hilliest Olympic marathon in historical past with over 400m of elevation acquire all through the 42.2 kilometres.

With defending champion Julie-Anne Staehli not returning to Ottawa to defend her nationwide XC title, there will likely be a brand new champion topped. One athlete to look at is Ceili McCabe from Vancouver, who had an excellent college cross-country profession on the College of West Virginia, incomes NCAA All-American honours twice and successful the 2021 Nuttycombe Invitational, (which is commonly considered one of many high meets of the NCAA XC season).

McCabe, a latest Canadian world championships crew member within the 3,000m steeplechase, will face stiff competitors, particularly from high returning finisher Katelyn Ayers of Victoria. Additionally in rivalry are earlier Canadian U Sports activities cross-country champions Katie Newlove and Glynis Sim, each representing the Vancouver Thunderbirds. Sim is coming into these championships off a profitable fall season the place she positioned second on the Vancouver Eastside 10K and twelfth within the street mile on the 2023 World Highway Working Championships in Riga, Latvia in early October.

A darkish horse podium choose for Saturday is Kiana Gibson, additionally from the Vancouver Thunderbirds, who’s coming into nationals off a top-five end on the 2023 Pan-American Video games within the 3,000m steeplechase. With a powerful college XC profession and a number of U Sports activities medals with Guelph and UBC, Gibson may very well be a shock top-three finisher eagerly awaiting a breakthrough efficiency.

College of British Columbia soars to double gold at 2023 U Sports activities XC Championships

Crew Class

Everybody loves a tightly contested crew competitors at nationals, however this yr within the ladies’s race, we sadly gained’t get that. The Vancouver Thunderbirds are loaded with expertise, with Leslie Sexton, Gibson, former college champs Sim and Newlove, plus a number of ladies from their 2023 U Sports activities nationwide championship crew, making them a drive to be reckoned with. It might take a miracle for them to be upset right here in Ottawa, particularly contemplating the depth of their high 4 contributing scores. I’d not be stunned if the Vancouver Thunderbirds positioned 5 athletes within the high 10 and set an Athletics Canada document for the bottom ladies’s crew rating at a Canadian XC Championship.

Outdoors of the Thunderbirds, CAUL (Membership D’Athletisme de L’Universite Laval) additionally has a strong crew and is led by steeplechaser Jessy Lacourse and 2023 U Sports activities crew silver medallist Jade Bérubé. CAUL will battle it out with Toronto’s Monarch Athletics Membership, led by Becca Brennan and Laura Desjardins, for silver and bronze. In 2022, CAUL had a slight edge over Monarch for the silver.