Flanagan’s stock is rising
OTTAWA — Ben Flanagan is closing the gap on the track.
A month back, the Kitchener native scored a long-shot victory at the NCAA finals in the men’s 10,000-metre event.
And Thursday, he almost added a national crown in the men’s 5,000-metre race at the Canadian track and field championships in Ottawa.
Flanagan ended up third but, more impressively, pushed two of the country’s top long distance runners to the limit in a wild finish that saw the trio separated by about half a second.
“I’m super happy with third,” said Flanagan, who posted a time of 14 minutes and 36.66 seconds. “I go into every race to win but the goal is to put myself in the mix and really compete for the win, and I think I did a good job doing that.”
The St. Mary’s High School graduate broke away from the field on the final lap and was on the heels of eventual winner Mohammed Ahmed with Justyn Knight in tow.
“That’s when things really started to tighten up for me,” said Flanagan. “I could feel Justyn just breathing down my neck. I know this guy too well. If you don’t have another gear, he’s going to make you pay for it, and that’s what he did.
“I came to the line and he just got me. It was one of those times where you wished the finish line was about three metres closer. That’s what you expect from those guys. There is very little room for error. I did what I could to fight for the win.”
But third is still a victory. After all, it was the University of Michigan student’s first race at the senior level. And he proved he could handle the action against some heady competition as Ahmed was fourth in the 5K at the Rio Olympics while Knight finished ninth at last year’s world championships.
“These guys are absolute studs and legitimately world class,” he said. “Before this season these guys were on a totally different playing field than me, so this was a really big step in the right direction.”
Flanagan is already back in town and training for two road races later this summer.
His graduate school studies in social work at the University of Michigan don’t wrap up until December. When that’s done, he can focus more on his ultimate running goal — representing Canada on the international stage.
“The dream ever since I was really young was to make the Olympics,” he said. “That’s something I really want to do. At this point in my career I’m probably more confident in that dream than I ever have been before. But I’m taking it one race at a time.”
The national championships wrap up Sunday.
Other locals who have stood out so far include Kitchener’s Brian Eaton who placed sixth in the 800-metre and seventh in 400-metre para-ambulatory, Laurel Creek Track Club’s Abbey Yuhasz, who was fifth in the women’s Under-20 5,000-metre race, and Cambridge’s Lindsay Carson, who was sixth in the senior women’s 5,000-metre run.