FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Meredith Galbraith
Landmark Sport Group
Office: 905-949-1910 ext.231
Cell: 416-580-3668
New Course Records Pile Up at 2007 Mississauga Marathon
presented by Canon
MISSISSAUGA- May 13. It was blue skies and fast times at this weekend's
Mississauga Marathon presented by Canon. By the end of the two day long
running event, organizers expected over 10,000 runners and walkers to have
participated in a line up of race events which included the Canon Marathon,
Rbk Half Marathon, Grand & Toy Corporate Relay Challenge, Canadian Tire
10K and Student Relay, Biovail's "The Hazel" 5K and a Bell 2K Fun Run/
Walk. In addition to the runners, over 40,000 spectators and 1,500
volunteers lined the 42 kilometre course.
New course records were the flavor of the event with fast finishing times
breaking previous course records in the Canon Marathon for both the male
and female races.
In his first ever marathon, Serbian born Predrag Mladenovic, who now
resides in Toronto, finished first in the Canon Marathon setting a new
course record for the men's race. With a time of 2:23:16, he finished ahead
of strong competitors Terry Gehl and Darl Sutherland.
2006 Canon Marathon Champion, Nathalie Goyer of St. Bruno, Quebec won
her second Canon Marathon with a finish time 2:51:48 breaking the record
she set only a year earlier by almost 4 minutes.
Second place female, Jutta Merilainen also surpassed the 2006 record in a
tight race against Goyer and third place finisher Sharlene Cobain.
"The endless hours of preparation are all worth it when you witness 10,000
runners cross that finish line completely satisfied and elated with their
accomplishment" commented Joe Hewitt, Assistant Race Director.
"Everyone involved in this event should be aware that they had a hand in
being part of people's dreams today. We owe a great deal of the success of
this race to our partners, our volunteers and a great group of runners."
The event weekend started with a two-day Runners Expo and Pasta Dinner,
both with significant participant and spectator turnout. "This year's
Runners Expo in our new venue, the Mississauga Valley Community Centre was
a huge success," commented Jackie Vanderwater of Landmark Sport Group,
the event organizer. "The City of Mississauga and their employees have
helped make this event special and will continue to be a great partner as
we start to plan for 2008. We are already looking forward to next year and
to making it another great experience for all those involved."
"By far our most successful year," said George Sourlis, also of Landmark
Sport Group. "With our strong group of corporate partners, we are very
excited to start working on our fifth annual event for 2008."
2007 sponsors include: Canon Canada, Reebok Canada, Mississauga
Canadian Tire dealers, Biovail, Grand & Toy, Bell, AstraZeneca, Advil, The
Mississauga News, Mississauga Business Times, AMJ Campbell Van Lines, Waste
Management, PowerBar, Gatorade, Aquafina, Lick's, Toronto Star, Longo's,
ProOrganics, LaVilla Fine Foods and Bakery, Rogers Television, CFRB 1010,
Ontario Tourism, Novotel Toronto Mississauga, Fram Building Group, Slokker
Real Estate Group, Z103.5, Running Room, Rubbermaid, Ruth's Chris Steak
House, CanKopy, Port Credit BIA, Hershey, Johnvince Foods, Vector and
Coppertone.
In its fourth year, the Mississauga Marathon presented by Canon expanded
its charity partnerships to include the Colorectal Cancer Association of
Canada, and the Mississauga YMCA to its existing list of partners; The
Credit Valley Hospital Foundation, Trillium Health Centre Foundation and
William Osler Health Centre Foundation. A four year total of $150,000 in
pledge dollars have been raised through the Mississauga Marathon.
Other fast finish times included Rbk Half Marathon winners Henry Githuka of
Milton (1:11:05) and Mississauga's Lioudmila Kortchaguina who beat her own
course record with a time of 1:15:36. Githuka and his sister, Pauline ran
two race events on the weekend, making both their rankings even more
impressive.
Saturday night was equally impressive with two new course records being set
in the Canadian Tire 10K. Winners Josephat Ongari and Pauline Githuka both
upped the level of competition on Saturday evening each with respective
times of 29:05 and 34:56.
Winners of Biovail's "The Hazel" 5K, were Darren Weldrick and Indra Winters
with times of 16:18 and 19:58, respectively. Weldick's time of 16:18 set a
new race record in the event named in honour of Mississauga's Mayor
McCallion, who was out on both Saturday and Sunday to help cheer on the
thousands of participants who ran.
You can watch the run on June 23rd when a one-hour production of race
highlights and stories airs in HDTV on TSN.
The 2008 Mississauga Marathon presented by Canon will celebrate its fifth
year on May 10th and 11th, 2008.
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