Posted: November 5, 2004

Athletics: Canada Names 2004 Chiba Ekiden Team

Ottawa – November 5 2004 – Athletics Canada is pleased to announce the six athletes selected to represent Canada at the 2004 Chiba Ekiden taking place on Tuesday, November 23 in Chiba, Japan.

Team members are listed below, along with their age, hometown and personal coach:

Mark Bomba, 35, Vernon BC, Marek Jedrzejek
Joel Bourgeois, 33, Grande-Digue NB, self coached
Matt Johnston, 26, Surrey BC, Gerry Swan and Brit Townsend
Ryan McKenzie, 26, Windsor ON, Dennis Fairall
Calvin Staples, 28, Arthur ON, Peter Grinbergs
Kevin Sullivan 30, Brantford ON, Ron Warhurst

The team leader and manager is Thelma Wright and the head coach is Frank Reynolds. Both are from Vancouver, BC.

Thelma has worked with Ekiden teams since 1985 in both a coaching and managerial capacity. She has also managed several major games teams including the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 IAAF World Championships.

Head coach of Canada’s national junior team that toured Scotland last summer; Frank Reynolds was also in charge of the Canadian team which took second place at the 2003 North American 5km Road Challenge team in Chula Vista, California.

The race in Japan is 42.195 km long (marathon distance) with the format for the different legs as follows -- 1st leg: 10 km; 2nd leg: 5 km; 3rd leg: 10 km; 4th leg; 5 km; 5th leg: 12.195 km.

The men's race will feature some of the finest national teams in the world. Last year the Canadian men finished 8th out of 15 international teams with a total time of 2:03:50. The 2003 overall men's team results were:

Results from 2003
Ethiopia                        1:55:59 (new record)
Kenya                           1:58:56 
Japan                            2:01:53 
Russia                          2:02:31 
University of Japan         2:03:14 
Australia                        2:03:47 
China                             2:03:47 
Canada                     2:03:50

Jeff Schiebler                 28:15 (5th)
Jeremy Deere                14:14 (4th) 
Taylor Murphy                30:00 (7th) 
Andrew Smith                14:47 (9th)
Joel Bourgeois               36:34 (8th)

USA                             2:04:33 

For full results and previous years, visit Athletics Canada.