Posted: June 26, 2006

Athletics: Giitah and Ahrvey Win Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon

Bright sunny skies, no wind and pleasant 14 degree C temperatures greeted the record field of 4,000 runners in the 2006 Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon. Another 500 runners participated in the accompanying 5k in Stanley Park. Participants were drawn from nine different countries and eighteen American states.

The Half Marathon took off at 7 am from the University of British Columbia. At the gun, the lead pack of six took off including Giitah Macharia of St. Catharines, Danny Kassap of Toronto, Joseph Nsengyiumva of Ottawa, Nourrdinne Betchim of Montreal and local favourites Jim Finlayson of Victoria and Steve Osaduik.

At the 1k mark, the four easteners (Macharia, Kassap, Betchim and Nsengyiumva) split away to form a lead pack that would run comfortably together to 7k. Kassap and Macharia and Nsengyiumva continued to pace and dropped Betchim at 7k.

The three continued together running strongly through the rolling mid- section of the course, no-one making any moves until the 18.5k mark heading down a short steep hill onto Beach Road, where Macharia and Kassap surged and dropped Nsengyiumva.

At 20k as Macharia and Kassap careened downhill to the seawall, Giitah made his decisive move, striding ahead and continued his kick along the final stretch to win comfortably in 1:04:30. Danny followed closely in for second only eight seconds back in 1:04:38.

Joseph completed the Eastern sweep, finishing in 1:04:52. Jim Finlayson was the top BC/Westerner, grabbing fourth spot in 1:06:56.

In the women's race, the West swept the podium. Calgarian Lisa Harvey dominated from the start to finish running comfortably in for the win in 1:17:59. Local favourite Leah Pells of Coquitlam finished a strong second in 1:18:49. Rounding out the top three was Nancy Tinari of Vancouver in 1:22:10.

The Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon was the fourth race in the 2006 Canada Running Series and raised more than 100,000 for the VGH/ UBC Hospital Foundation.

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