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Island runner Levins again breaks his own Canadian marathon record

The 33-year-old runner placed fifth this week in the Tokyo Marathon with a time of two hours, five minutes, 36 seconds.
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Cam Levins, right, competes in the men's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, last July. Patrick Smith, Pool via AP

Cam Levins of Black Creek keeps pounding the pavement and finding ways to top himself, something not easy to do at his rarefied level.

The 33-year-old Island runner broke his own Canadian record in the marathon for the second time in less than a year by running two hours, five minutes and 36 seconds to place fifth this week in the Tokyo Marathon.

It was also the fastest time ever recorded by a North American, besting American Khalid Khannouchi’s 2:05.38 in the 2002 London Marathon.

Levins eclipsed his previous Canadian record of 2:07:09 set last July in placing fourth in the 2022 IAAF world track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon. That world championship performance had broken Levins’ original Canadian record of 2:09:25 set in the 2018 Toronto Marathon, which had bested Jerome Drayton’s hallowed 43-year-old Canadian record of 2:10:09 set in 1975 at Fukuoka, Japan.

Levins, with head coach Jim Finlayson of Victoria, has completely retooled his approach to running after his disappointing showing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 in which Levins went out too fast and stayed with the lead pack in the early- and mid-portion of the race before fading to 72nd place.

“I really took a lot away from the last Olympics when I was among the last finishers,” Levins has said.

“I realized I needed to be better in every way across the board. I worked and changed myself completely as an athlete, and trained harder and better in every conceivable way.”

The new approach has paid dividends as his return to Tokyo this week was a triumph. It added another page to Levins’ already remarkable running story, which began in Grade 7 with the Comox Valley Cougars Track Club. Levins became the Island and B.C. high school cross-country champion with the G.P. Vanier Secondary Towhees of Courtenay before becoming 2012 NCAA Division 1 champion in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres with the University of Southern Utah Thunderbirds.

Levins went on to qualify for the finals of both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The Islander returned to the U.K. for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at Hampden Park.

A torn tendon in the left foot and surgery cost Levins the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Switching from track to road, he returned marvellously in 2018 and broke, by 44 seconds in his debut marathon, Drayton’s previously unassailable four-decade plus Canadian record.

Levins has now lowered that three times. His national record time in Tokyo this week surpassed the Olympic standard of 2:08:10 and qualified Levins for his third Olympic Games at Paris 2024, where the lessons from his last Olympic experience will no doubt be put to good use.

Deso Gelmisa of Ethiopia won the Tokyo Marathon in 2:05:22.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com