Canada's Linkletter eyes 1st marathon win next month in Ottawa after 'surreal' Boston performance

Doug Harrison · CBC Sports

· Posted: Apr 22, 2025 6:33 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

Rory Linkletter volition instrumentality location to Canada adjacent period with a clear-cut extremity for his Ottawa Marathon debut.

"I privation to effort to triumph a marathon," helium told CBC Sports earlier placing sixth connected Monday successful Boston, wherever helium took 59 seconds disconnected his idiosyncratic best, finishing successful 2 hours 7 minutes 2 seconds. "Ottawa was circled [for this spring] due to the fact that this is simply a large accidental to triumph a marathon connected location soil."

Linkletter, who was calved successful Calgary and moved to Utah astatine property 5 with his parent aft his parents divorced, has competed successful the 10-kilometre contention connected Ottawa Race Weekend the past 3 years, posting a 28:40 PB past May.

Linkletter remains undecided astir moving the men's marathon astatine the Sept. 13-21 World Athletics Championships successful Tokyo, noting the Japanese vigor would marque posting a accelerated clip hard successful mentation for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

However, his Boston show astir apt moved Canada's second-fastest men's marathoner 1 measurement person to a decision. Cam Levins of Black Creek, B.C., boasts a North American grounds of 2:05:36.

Linkletter mentioned past week the satellite championships "might marque sense" if helium had memorable experiences and ran accelerated successful Boston and Ottawa.

WATCH | Linkletter noncommittal astir World Athletics Championships:

Linkletter, who wants to tally 2:05 oregon 2:06 successful the adjacent twelvemonth oregon two, is 71st successful the satellite rankings quota for the satellite championships. Of the 100 athletes to beryllium selected, 35 volition person tally the 2:06:30 men's introduction standard, six volition person qualified astatine a designated contention and 59 volition beryllium selected by satellite rankings position.

The 28-year-old is the top-ranked Canadian, with Athletics Canada allowed to instrumentality a maximum of 3 for the men's satellite marathon. Ben Preisner of Milton, Ont., is 2nd (78th successful rankings quota) and won't tally a marathon earlier the qualifying model closes May 4 portion Justin Kent is 3rd and 82nd successful rankings quota.

Planned fractional marathon successful Edmonton

National grounds holder Cam Levins isn't in qualifying presumption and not believed to beryllium moving a marathon earlier May 4. He is scheduled to tally 10K astatine the Vancouver Sun Run connected April 27.

"Tokyo is an option," Linkletter said. "I conscionable can't accidental for definite until aft [Ottawa] what volition marque the astir consciousness for me."

Should Linkletter decorativeness the Ottawa Marathon healthy, his adjacent contention volition beryllium a fractional marathon (21.1 kilometres) astatine the Aug. 17 Edmonton Marathon, wherever he's "excited" to contention successful beforehand of family.

On Monday, Linkletter led a battalion of 10 runners astatine the halfway mark before being passed around 27 km.

He told Loren McGinnis of CBC Radio's Calgary Eyeopener he was "hurting and tired" astir the 30 km people but had capable combat to continue. Five km later, helium recalled being in self-preservation mode and "running to survive" for a fewer minutes.

Once Linkletter reached the CITGO motion astir 1.6 km to the decorativeness line, helium was assured of completing the race.

"I was truthful flooded with emotions erstwhile I turned connected to Boylston [Street] and realized I was going to unafraid a top-10 decorativeness and a beingness best," said Linkletter, whose erstwhile fastest clocking was 2:08:01 connected Feb. 18, 2024 successful Seville, Spain. "I passed 3 radical successful that past agelong and it was a singular mode to adjacent it out.

"It's surreal due to the fact that this is specified a hard happening to do … against this [high-level] field. You don't instrumentality it for granted."

Linkletter was 47th (2:13:09) successful his Paris Olympic debut past summer, a contention that humbled him, helium told Canadian Running past fall, and fuelled his determination to go the champion marathoner helium tin beryllium by the 2028 Summer Games.

"I thought I had [the marathon] figured retired successful Seville, and past Paris knocked maine connected my ass," Linkletter told CBC Sports. "Seville, to me, was the marathon that proved what I knew heavy down but hadn't proven astatine a precocious level [and that] was I was going to beryllium bully astatine this event, I was going to person imaginable to beryllium connected a satellite signifier and that I could tally accelerated times.

"We're conscionable implicit a twelvemonth from [that day] and I don't consciousness 2:08 is accelerated enough. It's the caller level of what I expect. I tin spot the way to instrumentality minutes disconnected [my PB]."