Local talent shines at record-setting Sask. Marathon

There was plenty of fanfare Sunday as thousands of supporters cheered on runners racing through Saskatoon.

More than 4,000 people took part in the 38th PotashCorp Saskatchewan Marathon on May 29, presented by the Saskatoon Road Runners Association.

In a news release Sunday, race director Kim Ali said the turnout topped the 2015 competition.

“We broke last year’s attendance record with 4,043 participants this year,” Ali said.

She also cited great weather for helping bolster spirits; Saskatoon reached a sunny high of 21 C Sunday.

The event started and ended at Diefenbaker Park, and featured a 42-kilometre marathon (233 runners), a 21-kilometre half-marathon (1,005 runners), along with 10K and 5K races (1,073 and 482 runners respectively).

There were also many young legs on the course this year, as 1,250 elementary school students took part in the MaraFun race.

Over the last ten weeks, the kids completed 40 km in walking and running — averaging four kilometres a week over the last three months — and finished their own “marathon” with a 2.2 km fun run.

International runners also took part, travelling to Saskatoon all the way from Australia, the United States, Ukraine, China and across Canada.

“Having last year’s marathon and half marathon winners back from the Ukraine made the event a real race. These athletes help raise the profile of running in Saskatoon,” said Peter Goode, president of the Saskatoon Road Runners Association in a news release Sunday.

The winners are as follows:

• Sergii Vashurin won the 2016 Saskatchewan Marathon for the second time with a time of 2:31:35, beating his last years’ time of: 2:37:55 by more than 6 minutes. 
• Erin Gardiner from Saskatoon was the first women across the Marathon finish line with a time of 3:04:33; she also won in 2015.
• Sask. Ruslan Kramariuk of Kitsman, Ukraine won the Men’s Half-Marathon in 1:12:19, a personal best for him. and the women’s winner was
• Nicole Bletsky from Saskatoon, Bletsky won the Women’s Half-Marathon with a time of 1:33:39.
• Ibrahim Mohammed of Saskatoon, Sask. won the GoodLife Fitness 10 km Men’s race with a time of 34:43.
• Jennifer Souter of Saskatoon won the GoodLife Fitness 10 km women’s race with a time of 37:45.
• Iain McCormick of Saskatoon, Sask. won the Men’s 5 km with a time of 17:48
• Robyn Luthi from Melfort, Sask. won the Women’s 5 km with a time of 19:38, winner of 2015.