Natasha Wodak collected her second BC Championship of 2011, adding the 5K title to her 8K victory in January, while Matt Clout successfully defended his 2010 title. The 2011 BC 5K Championship was held in conjunction with the Dave Reed 5K, hosted by the Vancouver Falcons, and was also race #8 in the Timex BC Road Race Series, and race #3 in the Lower Mainland Road Running Series.
Wodak led from the gun, in her third race around the seawall in three weeks, running 16:53. Some distance back, Shauna Skinner had to work hard to beat BC high school cross country champion Tanya Humeniuk, 17:38 to 17:41. As a Youth, Humeniuk was not eligible for Championship prizing, in which third place went to Amy Schneeberg in 17:54.
Clout also led from the start, and was unpressed for the win. Nevertheless he was 4 seconds quicker than last year, clocking 15:02. Behind him, triathlete Andrew McCartney held off David Palermo for second, 15:38 to 15:39. McCartney ducked under Triathlon Canada’s competition standard, while Palermo picked up a personal best and second place in the championship. Rowan Forseth rounded out the championship placing in 15:44.
The race remembers Dave Reed, and in his honour the top age-graded performance was the Dave Reed Memorial Trophy. This produced an extremely close outcome with Jim Swadling’s 18:25 at age 64 judged to be marginally better than Cindy Rhodes’ 19:34 at age 54. Third on age grading was 70 year old Herb Phillips, who clocked 19:37.
Complete results: http://www.racedaytiming.ca/springclassic2011.html
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