Kenyan-born Lethbridge runner Kip Kangogo won his fourth Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon Sunday, finishing the 21.1-kilometre race in one hour, three minutes and 33 seconds to beat Vancouvers Rob Watson by 54 seconds.
Watson, who turned 30 on race day, previously qualified in the marathon for the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation) world championships and on Sunday announced he would travel to Moscow for the August meet.
In the womens race, Canadian long-distance runners and friendly rivals Krista DuChene, 36, and Lanni Marchant, 29, finished one ahead of the other, crossing the finish line ninth and tenth overall. Neck and neck at the 10km mark, DuChenes 33-minute split edged Marchant by two seconds before the latter fell of the pace and ultimately finished 45 seconds behind.
DuChene, of Brantford, Ont., won the womens race in 1:10:52. Marchant followed at 1:11:37 after she barley got out of the start gate. I got tripped up at the very start of the race and nearly did a face plant, she told the hosts of the Canadian Running Series, which also holds the Spring Run-Off each March in Vancouver and the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in October. I tried to hang on the best I could, but my body and I decided we were at odds with each other.
DuChene and Marchant will meet again in the marathon at the world championships, held this coming August in Moscow.
A sell-out crowd of 7,000 raced in the 15th annual Scotiabank Half-Marathon and raised more than $700,000 for 71 different charities.
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