Posted: May 14, 2007

Athletics: New Course Records Pile Up at 2007 Mississauga Marathon presented by Canon

MISSISSAUGA- May 13. It was blue skies and fast times at this weekend’s Mississauga Marathon presented by Canon. By the end of the two day long running event, organizers expected over 10,000 runners and walkers to have participated in a line up of race events which included the Canon Marathon, Rbk Half Marathon, Grand & Toy Corporate Relay Challenge, Canadian Tire 10K and Student Relay, Biovail’s “The Hazel” 5K and a Bell 2K Fun Run/ Walk. In addition to the runners, over 40,000 spectators and 1,500 volunteers lined the 42 kilometre course. New course records were the flavor of the event with fast finishing times breaking previous course records in the Canon Marathon for both the male and female races. In his first ever marathon, Serbian born Predrag Mladenovic, who now resides in Toronto, finished first in the Canon Marathon setting a new course record for the men’s race. With a time of 2:23:16, he finished ahead of strong competitors Terry Gehl and Darl Sutherland. 2006 Canon Marathon Champion, Nathalie Goyer of St. Bruno, Quebec won her second Canon Marathon with a finish time 2:51:48 breaking the record she set only a year earlier by almost 4 minutes. Second place female, Jutta Merilainen also surpassed the 2006 record in a tight race against Goyer and third place finisher Sharlene Cobain. “The endless hours of preparation are all worth it when you witness 10,000 runners cross that finish line completely satisfied and elated with their accomplishment” commented Joe Hewitt, Assistant Race Director. “Everyone involved in this event should be aware that they had a hand in being part of people's dreams today. We owe a great deal of the success of this race to our partners, our volunteers and a great group of runners.” The event weekend started with a two-day Runners Expo and Pasta Dinner, both with significant participant and spectator turnout. “This year’s Runners Expo in our new venue, the Mississauga Valley Community Centre was a huge success,” commented Jackie Vanderwater of Landmark Sport Group, the event organizer. “The City of Mississauga and their employees have helped make this event special and will continue to be a great partner as we start to plan for 2008. We are already looking forward to next year and to making it another great experience for all those involved.” “By far our most successful year,” said George Sourlis, also of Landmark Sport Group. “With our strong group of corporate partners, we are very excited to start working on our fifth annual event for 2008.” 2007 sponsors include: Canon Canada, Reebok Canada, Mississauga Canadian Tire dealers, Biovail, Grand & Toy, Bell, AstraZeneca, Advil, The Mississauga News, Mississauga Business Times, AMJ Campbell Van Lines, Waste Management, PowerBar, Gatorade, Aquafina, Lick’s, Toronto Star, Longo’s, ProOrganics, LaVilla Fine Foods and Bakery, Rogers Television, CFRB 1010, Ontario Tourism, Novotel Toronto Mississauga, Fram Building Group, Slokker Real Estate Group, Z103.5, Running Room, Rubbermaid, Ruth's Chris Steak House, CanKopy, Port Credit BIA, Hershey, Johnvince Foods, Vector and Coppertone. In its fourth year, the Mississauga Marathon presented by Canon expanded its charity partnerships to include the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada, and the Mississauga YMCA to its existing list of partners; The Credit Valley Hospital Foundation, Trillium Health Centre Foundation and William Osler Health Centre Foundation. A four year total of $150,000 in pledge dollars have been raised through the Mississauga Marathon. Other fast finish times included Rbk Half Marathon winners Henry Githuka of Milton (1:11:05) and Mississauga’s Lioudmila Kortchaguina who beat her own course record with a time of 1:15:36. Githuka and his sister, Pauline ran two race events on the weekend, making both their rankings even more impressive. Saturday night was equally impressive with two new course records being set in the Canadian Tire 10K. Winners Josephat Ongari and Pauline Githuka both upped the level of competition on Saturday evening each with respective times of 29:05 and 34:56. Winners of Biovail’s “The Hazel” 5K, were Darren Weldrick and Indra Winters with times of 16:18 and 19:58, respectively. Weldick’s time of 16:18 set a new race record in the event named in honour of Mississauga’s Mayor McCallion, who was out on both Saturday and Sunday to help cheer on the thousands of participants who ran. You can watch the run on June 23rd when a one-hour production of race highlights and stories airs in HDTV on TSN. The 2008 Mississauga Marathon presented by Canon will celebrate its fifth year on May 10th and 11th, 2008. Photo Credits- Dave Cheng, Lucia Chu