HIGH ACHIEVERS WEEKEND WRAP: Record number of runners, a 100-year-old walker excel at memorable Ottawa Race Weekend

By Martin Cleary

The 2026 Ottawa Race Weekend was one of the most unique on record for a multitude of reasons.

Not only did all six major races sell out (39,659) for the first time since 2017, but also there was a full range of running performances that brought life, colour and excitement to the revived running festival, which started as a lonely marathon on a hot Sunday in May of 1975.

Elvis Cheboi of Nairobi, Kenya won the men’s marathon in a near-personal-best time. He battled a persistent pack of his peers, light rain and chilly morning temperatures to win the Taramack Homes Ottawa International Marathon in two hours, nine minutes and 22 seconds, which was two seconds off the best-ever time that earned him the 2023 Toronto Waterfront Marathon title.

His second-best marathon time came on the 50th running of the Ottawa marathon. The marathon marked 50 years since the first marathon in 2024, although organizers staged two virtual years of the marathon and Ottawa Race Weekend events in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

How about the extraordinary performance of centenarian Roy Allen of Ottawa? He used his double poles to complete the 5-kilometre race as a walker to become the oldest person in the history of the event to complete the distance.

Allen also used his marathon walk to raise funds for four Ottawa organizations that assist seniors – the Gloucester 50+ Centre, Perley Health Foundation, the Dementia Society and the Council on Aging of Ottawa.

Allen’s support group of about 20 people celebrated his ‘victory’ at the finish and Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe presented Allen with his finishing medal. After his podium moment, he recovered in his wheelchair for more photos.

Speaking of Mayor Sutcliffe, he added another successful marathon run to his resume, but he took a different approach to focus on an important cause.

While other marathoners were just waking up, Sutcliffe started his race in darkness at 4 a.m. to get the feeling of nighttime homelessness. He walked to the finish line with a group of young people and adults, shaking hands with many race volunteers. He didn’t receive an official time.

His main goal for running the race was to bring awareness to the city’s End Youth Homelessness in Ottawa by 2030 Fund. He raised $117,170 towards fighting youth homelessness.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the support of our community,” Sutcliffe posted on X. “Thank you to everyone who contributed, cheered on and joined me across the finish line, including our youth. It was an incredible moment.”

The memory of Onondaga runner Tom Longboat, one of Canada’s greatest long-distance runners and the 1907 Boston Marathon champion with a then record time of 2:24:24, was alive and well through Kristian Jamieson.

As Longboat’s great-great grandson, Jamieson attempted to beat Longboat’s Boston time on the Ottawa course, but fell short with a clocking of 2:31:23. In April, Jamieson finished the Boston Marathon in 2:33.

No arms? No problem. Sudarshan Gautam of Niagara Falls, ON, lost both arms in a life-altering accident at age 13, and he has become a global advocate for disability awareness. Gautam, the first person to reach the Mount Everest summit, finished the men’s half marathon in 2:58:08.

Can’t forget the conclusion to the Ottawa Kids Marathon, which kicked off the weekend of pavement pounding. For the past many weeks and months, 1,934 elementary school students ran the first 41 kilometres of their marathon at school and finished the task with a 1.195-kilometre run to the finish line Saturday afternoon.

And the finish was quite spectacular as three runners in the 11-14 age group ran the identical time of three minutes, 57 seconds – Noah Bradley of South Mountain, ON, Max Davidson of Stittsville and Hayato Sone of Ottawa.

Isabel Villamarin of Ottawa was the top girl and right behind the boys in fourth place at 4:00. The local podium for girls was completed by Tessa Morris of Ottawa and Isla Pinto of Ottawa, who both were timed in 4:13.

Elvis Cheboi surprised himself by winning the marathon as he thought eventual runner-up Gizelew Ayana of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, would pass him. But Ayana was four seconds behind Cheboi in 2:09:26, while Canadian Rory Linkletter, who trains in Flagstaff, Arizona, was third at 2:09:43.

The top three local marathoners completed the spring challenge in the top one per cent of the field of 4,846 runners.

Running the Ottawa marathon for the third time, Lee Wesselius of Russell, ON, placed 14th overall for the third consecutive time. But this year, he ran a personal-best 2:16:21 for the race. His previous fastest Ottawa time was 2:18:27 in 2024.

Isaac Kipkemboi of Ottawa placed 15th in 2:17:19 and Andrew Deak of Chelsea was 36th in 2:27:54.

Former international middle-distance standout Abeba Aregawi of Stockholm via Ethiopia made her marathon debut a golden one at age 35.

Aregawi fell off the lead pace late in the race when she didn’t feel well, but rebounded to win the women’s title by 2:21 with an impressive time of 2:23:12. It was the second fastest women’s winning time in the history of the Ottawa marathon.

The women’s 1,500-metre silver medallist at the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, Aregawi won the gold medal over the same distance at the 2013 world championships in Moscow.

Aregawi became a naturalized Swede when she married an Ethiopian with Swedish citizenship. She later married Yemane Tsegay, who won the Ottawa men’s marathon in 2018 and 2014 and held the race record of 2:06:54 for six races over eight years (2014-2022). She made a competitive running comeback in 2024, after stepping back for nine years.

When Aregawi fell off the pace, it looked like Tahir Kuftu of Addis Ababa would secure the title. But Kuftu finished second in 2:25:33, while Betty Chepkorir of Nairobi was third at 2:25:51.

Gatineau’s Claudine Soucie was the top regional runner in 16th place in a personal-best 2:45:40, while Erin O’Higgins of Ottawa was 18th in 2:47:35 and Meggy Bourassa of Gatineau finished 22nd at 2:54:15.

Soucie bettered her Ottawa marathon time by 27 seconds. She was eighth in the women’s race in 2025 at 2:46:07. O’Higgins also improved her best Ottawa marathon time significantly, after going 2:54:41 in 2025.

Her 13th Ottawa women’s half marathon certainly wasn’t unlucky for Meghan Foottit of Ottawa as the Ottawa high school teacher/coach placed first in the gender and age group category.

Foottit was the women’s and 40-44 age-group champion in 1:17:44, which was a big improvement on her previous best time of 1:19:36 from 2025, when she also captured both top gender and age-group honours.

Canadian runners filled the next three places with Isabelle Morin of Quebec City in second, 1:20:21; Aamna Sirohey of Edmonton in third, 1:21:45 and Andrée Burke of Gatineau in fourth, 1:22:46. Aditi Krishna of Chelsea placed seventh in 1:25:19.

Ryan Wojdyla of Austin, Texas, ran a personal-best 1:08:55 to win the men’s half marathon by 104 seconds over Toronto’s Tyler Hamilton, who took second in 1:10:39.

Ottawa’s Hyun Oh ran his fastest Ottawa half marathon to finish third in 1:11:28, while Xavier Plouffe of Gatineau was fourth overall in 1:11:58 and Artsiom Biba of Ottawa secured fifth in 1:12:26.

Ken Lorbetskie of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club ran his second fastest time to win the men’s five-kilometre race in 15:45, which was three seconds off his best-ever time. He finished ahead of Gatineau runners Sean Ibbott, 15:50, and Victor Lafontaine, 15:52.

Kara Blair, a former Queen’s University cross-country running co-captain from Rideau Lakes, ON, was the women’s five-kilometre champion in a commanding 17:01. Ottawa runners Charlotte Gardner and Lilah Saibil were second and third respectively in 18:27 and 18:31.

Saibil’s performance was quite impressive as she is only 12 years old. Her time erased Lions club records in the girls’ U14 and U16 categories. The U16 record was set in 1985.

For the third time in the past four years, Ottawa’s Thomas Nobbs narrowly missed the medal presentation with yet another fourth-place result in the men’s 10-kilometre race presented by Otto’s Ottawa. At least Nobbs’ time of 28:48 was his best over that time frame.

Andrew Alexander of Toronto held off Thomas Fafard of Repentigny, PQ, for the victory in 28:19. Fafard was second in 28:21, while two-time winner Ben Flanagan of Kitchener took third in 28:33.

Completing the top three local runners were Maxime Leboeuf of Gatineau in 19th in 30:12 and Ottawa Lions’ Daniel Cova in 44th in a race debut 31:49.

The women’s 10-kilometre race medallists were Florence Caron of Quebec City, 32:31; Sevanne Ghazarian of Cambridge, 33:15; and Cleo Boyd of Kingston, 33:17.

Katie Newlove of Ottawa was the fastest in the region in 35:05, while Veronique Fortin of Chelsea was second among local runners at 35:55 and Olivia MacAskill of Ottawa took third at 36:34.

Newlove won U Sports women’s cross-country running individual and team gold medals in 2023 with the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.

The top regional runners in the two-kilometre race were Janelle Massicotte of Ottawa and Leonard Deveau of Gatineau, who were first and third respectively in the girls’ standings at 8:26 and 8:29, and Kyle Boutilier of Ottawa, who was second in the boys’ competition at 6:57.

KATE MILLER PLACES FIRST ON PLATFORM AT SUMMER NATIONALS

Kate Miller of the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club won the women’s 10-metre platform competition at the Summer Senior National Diving Championships in Toronto.

The majority of her dives earned marks from 7.0 to 8.0 points and she finished with an overall total of 346.60 points.

Ella Lindsay of the Nepean-Ottawa club was sixth at 272.40 points.

“I’m really happy that I was able to stay relatively consistent throughout both the preliminaries and the final,” Miller said in a Diving Canada news release.

“In the final, I could have been a little more precise on certain dives, but those are things to work on for future competitions.”

Lindsay also was sixth in the women’s one-metre event at 213.20 points and 14th on the three-metre springboard at 224.70 points.

MERISSAH RUSSELL SPARKS CANADA VICTORY, WINS MVP AWARD

Ottawa’s Merissah Russell made a huge impact in her first international women’s 3×3 basketball tournament for Canada.

Russell sank two free throws in overtime to give defending champion Canada a 19-17 win over Amsterdam in the back-and-forth, tense final at the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series tournament in Shanghai.

Those two critical points gave Russell a game-high seven points for Canada and she finished with 33 points for the tournament, which helped her win the event’s MVP award.

The University of Louisville graduate finished with a tournament-high eight two-point baskets and had the leading player value score of 45.6. She was the second-best rebounder behind teammate Katherine Plouffe.

DABROWSKI EARNS 400^TH WTA WOMEN’S DOUBLES WIN

Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and doubles partner Luisa Stefani of Brazil entered the two-week French Open at Roland Garros filled with optimism and positivity.

They won the Strasbourg International women’s doubles title 7-5, 6-4 over Ulrikke Eikeri and Quinn Gleason for their second trophy of the year. Earlier, they were the champions at the Dubai Duty Free Championships.

By winning the final, Dabrowski also achieved her 400th victory on the WTA circuit. Dabrowski and Stefani are ranked fifth in the world and are seeded fourth for the French Open women’s doubles.

CPKC WOMEN’S OPEN RETURNING TO ROYAL OTTAWA GOLF CLUB

Golf Canada’s premier championship for women is returning to the National Capital Region.

The 2027 Canadian Pacific Kansas City Women’s Open will be played at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club Aug. 18-22. The 53rd edition of Canada’s national women’s open championships will mark the tournament’s sixth appearance in the region.

The championship was staged at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club in 2022 and 2017 and the Royal Ottawa in 2000.

Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, a two-time winner of the national open title in 2025 in Mississauga and 2018 in Regina, played at both tournaments on the Ottawa Hunt course. She tied for 12th place in 2017 and tied for 49th in 2022.

LOCAL ARTISTIC SWIMMERS TOPS AT PROVINCIALS

Athletes from the Nepean and Go Capital artistic swimming clubs were frequently called onto the podium at the 2026 Ontario Artistic Swimming Championships in Markham.

Nepean swept the both the junior team tech and free events, while Go Capital finished third in tech and a second Nepean entry was third in free.

Coached by Erin Alizadeh, the champion Nepean team included Aubrey Benn, Emalea Mcbain, Avery Mclellan, Salma Nounou, Maika Paradis, junior solo free gold medallist Avery Kemp, junior solo tech silver medallist Kaitlyn Bird and junior solo free bronze medallist Alison Doraty.

Go Capital swept all three podium places in the senior solo free, topped by Lily Duc, with Melissa Pilon on the second step and Dilara Baysal in third, while the Go Capital pair of Katelyn Godsell and Ella Virtanen won the senior duet free, and Kaisa Virtanen topped the senior solo tech, followed by Nepean’s Ariane Downar in second.

Go Capital’s Katya Cole and Jocelyne Nan were the Age 11-12 duet champions, while Go Capital silver medallists included Tea Bedard and Lillyan Malek (junior duet tech), Neve Poitras and June Winchell (youth duet), and Alice Bisaillon, Keya Chitte, Kenzie Cousineau, Isla Kaazan, Samantha Lefebvre, Ekaterina Rutcovschi, Poitras, Winchell and coach Melissa Pilon (youth team).

Winners in the adapted category were Nepean’s Alana Ittusardjuat and Sadie Shouldice (C5 figures and solo) and they both joined in with Caelan Mendonca, Jemma Neal, Brooke Rakoczy-Penney, Anna Threinen and coach Colleen MacMillan for a mixed ability Level B title.

Ittusardjuat and Neal were silver medallists in mixed ability Level B duet, Shouldice and Rakoczy-Penney took bronze for mixed ability Level C duet, while Brody Kilabuk earned silver in adapted C2 solo and bronze in mixed ability Level A duet alongside Grace Murray.

FINISHING KICK

· Five Ottawa-Gatineau track athletes and one coach have been named to Athletics Canada’s team for the inaugural Pan American Senior Athletics Championships June 26-28 in Medellin, Colombia – Lauren Gale, Ottawa Lions, women’s 400 metres; Maeliss Trapeau, Lions, women’s 800 metres; Audrey Leduc, Gatineau Athletics, women’s 200 metres; Jacqueline Madogo, Royal City Athletics Club, women’s 100 metres; Eliezer Adjibi, C.A.N.I. Athletics, men’s 100 metres; and Glenroy Gilbert, Lions, head coach.

· Ottawa’s Alexander Woodford was 52nd in the World Cup men’s U23 cross-country mountain bike race in Nove Mesto Na Morave, Czechia. He finished the course in one hour, 18 minutes, 14 seconds and was 6:14 behind winner Thibaut Francois Baudry of Spain.

· Emmanuel Oko-Oboh and Godson Okokoh, both of Ottawa, are attending the Canada Basketball men’s U18 national team camp in Toronto. A dozen players will be selected from the group of 18 to represent Canada at the FIBA U18 men’s AmeriCup 2026 tournament in Leon, Mexico, June 1-7.

· Atlético Ottawa Juniors product Elijah Roche and current Atlético Ottawa player Sergei Kozlovskiy have been selected to play for the Canadian men’s under-20 soccer team at the May 31-June 14 Maurice Revello Tournament in France ahead of this summer’s 2026 Concacaf U-20 men’s championship.