Natasha Wodak headlines Canadian elites at 2025 Houston Marathon weekend


The 2025 Chevron Houston Marathon and Half-Marathon on Sunday, Jan. 19, might be a significant season opener for a handful of elite Canadians, together with Canadian marathon document holder Natasha Wodak. Ten of the nation’s high athletes are set to tackle the half-marathon or marathon occasions.

Natasha Wodak Houston
Natasha Wodak chatting to the media earlier than the 2024 Houston Marathon. Picture: Kevin Morris

Girls’s half-marathon

Wodak is the only elite Canadian competitor within the ladies’s half-marathon occasion. Whereas she competes primarily within the marathon, the 43-year-old remains to be acquainted with shorter races–she holds a half-marathon private better of 1:09:41. Wodak is contemporary off her first nationwide marathon title on the 2024 Canadian Marathon Championships in October, and took dwelling ninth place in Houston final January.

Males’s half-marathon

4 Canadian males will line up for the boys’s half-marathon, led by 5K and 10K nationwide document holder Ben Flanagan. The Kitchener, Ont., native holds a private better of 1:01:00 from 2022, and might be trying to kick off his 2025 season with a robust efficiency. Paris Olympic 5,000m finalist Thomas Fafard of Quebec will return to Houston after a Twelfth-place end in 2024, the place he set his half marathon private better of 1:02:17. Milton, Ont.’s Ben Preisner, Canada’s third-fastest marathoner, can even toe the road after an eight-month hiatus from racing. He holds a private better of 1:02:42.

Olympic steeplechaser John Homosexual of Kelowna, B.C., will spherical out the Canadian elite crew to make his half-marathon debut.

4 Canadians place in high 10 at Houston Marathon

Girls’s marathon

Windsor, Ont.’s Dayna Pidhoresky, who holds a greatest time of two:29:03, heads to Houston to run her first race since June and first marathon in additional than a yr. The 38-year-old might be joined by Port Elgin, Ont.’s Rachel Hannah, the 2024 Across the Bay Street Race champion, who not too long ago claimed bronze on the 2024 Canadian XC Championships in November.

Thomas Broatch
Thomas Broatch wins the Canadian Marathon Championships at TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2023. Picture: Todd Fraser/CRS

Males’s marathon

Broatch returns to Houston, undoubtedly trying to enhance on his top-10 end from final yr’s occasion, the place he set his private greatest of two:11:51. The 26-year-old might be joined by compatriots Andrew Alexander of Toronto and Phil Parrot-Migas of London, Ont., each boasting contemporary private bests from October. Alexander ran 2:14:13 in his debut on the 2024 Canadian Marathon Championships in Toronto, whereas Parrot-Migas raced to a greatest of two:15:32 on the 2024 Chicago Marathon.

The total elite area for the Houston half marathon and marathon could be discovered right here.



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