Four Canadians place in top 10 at Houston Marathon

It was a day for personal bests for three Canadians at the 2024 Chevron Houston Marathon on Sunday. Cobden, Ont.’s Tristan Woodfine and Thomas Broatch of Vancouver finished sixth and seventh, running 2:10:39 and 2:11:51 respectively, while Leslie Sexton ran to a personal best 2:28:14 for eighth. 

Broatch bettered his former best time of 2:16:25 from his debut in the distance at the TCS Waterfront Marathon in October, while Woodfine bested his time of 2:10:51 at the 2020 London Marathon. “Tristan had to run a lot of time by himself, and there were not many pacers,” said Woodfine’s coach and former Canadian 50K record holder Reid Coolsaet post-race. (Neither runner achieved the 2024 Paris Olympic standard of 2:07:45.)

Canadian marathon record holder Natasha Wodak and former national team athletes Leslie Sexton and Lanni Marchant all missed their goals of hitting the Paris 2024 Olympic standard of 2:26:50. Sexton and Wodak still cracked the top 10, with Sexton finishing eighth in 2:28:14 and Wodak ninth in 2:28:42. Marchant finished in 2:38:32 and 15th place.

Men’s race

The top four runners hit the Olympic standard of 2:08:10 at Sunday’s Houston Marathon, with Moroccan runner Zouhair Talbi first over the line in a course record (and personal best) time of 2:06:39.

U.S.-based Talbi, who was fifth at both the 2023 Boston Marathon and Houston Half Marathon, ran a personal best, with second-place Tsedat Ayana of Ethiopia finishing in 2:07.00, and Hendrik Pfeiffer of Germany rounding out the podium in 2:07.14. Pat Tiernan of Australia was the fourth runner in under Olympic standard in 2:07:45.

Women’s race

Ethiopia’s Rahma Tusa won the women’s race in 2:19:33. Tusa is a three-time winner of the Rome Marathon, and was fifth in the 2018 NYC Marathon.

Second-place Vicoty Chepngeno of Kenya was 22 seconds behind Tusa in 2:19:55, and Ethiopian runner Melesech Tsegaye Beyene rounded out the women’s podium in 2:24:50.

Chepngeno, who was making her marathon debut, was the 2022 winner and course record holder of the Houston Half Marathon, where she ran 1:05:03—which is the fastest women’s half-marathon time run in North America.

Non-binary race

Brooklyn, N.Y. runner Erin Anthony won the non-binary division on Sunday in 3:22:37. They were followed by Chicago’s Cynthia Kmak in 3:28:31 and Houston’s Hannah Schaible in 4:19:18.

For full results of the 2024 Chevron Houston Marathon, head here.