Art Meaney’s top 10 for the 10
The veteran runnerr/coach and former Tely 10 champ makes his choices for Sunday
On Sunday, we could see the most exciting Tely 10 since 2006 when Colin Fewer and Paul McCloy duelled to the finish line with Fewer winning by two seconds. Matt Loiselle is in town and he is a guy with very impressive stats. Based in Toronto, he runs with the Brooks Project, an elite athlete development group. Loiselle has run 14:27 for five kilometers, 29:23 for 10 kilometers, 49:26 for 10 miles, 63:47 for the half marathon and 2:16 for the full marathon.
In April, he won Harry’s 8km Run in Toronto in 23:55 and placed second to Canadian Olympic marathoner Eric Gillis at the recent Canadian half-marathon championship in Montreal. Both he and Fewer have run for Canada internationally. Fewer is having a good season, too. He ran for Canada at the North American cross-country championship in March in Trinidad, placing seventh. His performances this spring in British Columbia and at the Ottawa Race Weekend solidified his position as one of Canada’s top ranked road racers. His recent 24:01 win at the Mews 8km race shows he is sharp enough to run his second sub-50 minute Tely.
Fewer is gunning for his eighth consecutive Tely championship which would put him one shy of Pat Kelly’s record nine wins. I think his experience and success on the course gives him an edge, and I am picking him to win, with Loiselle the runner-up.
However, Fewer will have to be at the top of his game against this formidable opponent and make no mistakes or Loiselle will prove me wrong.
Graydon Snider of Montreal has always performed well at the Tely 10 races he has run. Last year, he was second in 52:27 in a strong field. This spring, he ran strongly at the Around the Bay 30km race in Hamilton and recorded a 33 minute 10K time at Ottawa Race Weekend. Snider should be third on Sunday.
John Angelopoulos missed last year’s race because of a car accident. He is recovered and back with a vengeance, running 25:13 at the recent Mews, finishing second behind Fewer. He is short on race experience this season, the Mews event being his only outing. Nevertheless, the hard work he puts in with training partner Peter Power should take him to a fourth-place finish.
Power, at 49, continues to amaze. He has three victories this year — the Max Half Marathon, the Toyota 15km and ran a jawdropping 32:56 to win the hilly Molson Light 10km. Power is one of Canada’s best age groupers, keeping company with guys like the extraordinary Steve Boyd.
Power will be 50 next year and I anticipate some of my age group records for that category will be history. Power will round out the first five.
Adam Snow was 10th in 2011, but expect a big improvement this year. In April, he won the Burtons Pond 5K race and then recorded a sub-16 minute 5K time in Ottawa in May. He recently added a number of top three finishes on the local scene to his accomplishments and looks fit enough to finish sixth.
David Freake has become one of Newfoundland’s best road racers. Last fall, he won the gruelling Cape to Cabot race and this season has wins at the Boston Pizza Flat Out 5K race and the Harbourfront 10K race. He has been bested by Power several times lately, and would love to beat him at the Tely.
I will choose him for seventh, but both Snow and Power best be wary of him.
Peter Bazeley has made only one appearance on the roads to date, a strong second-place finish behind Power at the Toyota Plaza 15K. Bazeley is a doctor whose medical duties have taken him outside the province at times and limited his racing. However, he is a distance man with many past victories to his credit and loads of experience to call upon. Bazeley for eighth.
I predict two Nova Scotians with university cross-country running backgrounds will fight it out for ninth and 10th places. Graham MacDonald, one of Memorial’s strongest performers last fall, has become a successful road racer usually finishing among the top five locally. Brent Addison, a former St. FX and Dalhousie athlete, is making his Tely debut. A few weeks ago, he logged a 26:25 five miler in Nova Scotia.
I will give the nod to MacDonald for ninth with Addison 10th, but the latter is known to be a tough guy who is not afraid to run hard and fast, so McDonald would be best keep his wits about him.
This year there is a strong supporting cast to my Tely picks, eager to steal some limelight and play havoc with my top ten choices.
Watch for Memorial cross-country athlete Mark Hayward, winner of the Garnish 10K, and his teammates Rudy Riedlsperger, Kassu Gebresellasie and Nick Snow to run strongly. A late entry by Will Fitzgerald could shake things up.
Tom Martin, Deon Flynn, Steve Adams, Trevor Trahey, Ian Royle, Chris Jackman and Melvin Layden will be looking for success. And don’t forget veterans like Ed Durnford, Jeff Penton, Joe Dunford, Paul Fewer, Don Fagan and Jeff Collingwood, all running well this season. Until
a few days ago, Kate Bazeley’s appearance at this year’s Tely was a question mark. The 2010-11 champion recently hit some rough water in her training and racing and had to scale back for a time.
She had a brilliant early season after a stint of high-altitude training in Colorado. She won four local events, and then went on to win the Canadian half-marathon championship in Montreal, making it clear to the rest of Canada it had better take notice of female runners from the eastern part of the country.
I believe her backing off a little in her training may not have been a bad thing, and may work in her favor on race day.
Runners often find that an enforced rest sometimes allows them to come to the start line with fresh legs and renewed energy and results in a top-notch performance. On that basis, I am predicting a third Tely 10 championship for Bazeley this weekend, but it won’t be easy as she will be pursued by fourtime Tely winner Lisa Harvey and Caroline MciIroy, a former champion as well.
Harvey remains one of Canada’s best female distance runners, 20 years after wearing the Canadian uniform at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and many times since internationally. Her running longevity is no fluke. Her dedication to the sport is as strong as ever, and her training as focused and thorough as 20 years ago.
Her recent 78:36 at the Vancouver Scotia Bank halfmarathon shows that the 42-two-year old Harvey has no intention of slowing down. She will be second at the 2012 Tely. McIlroy, also in her early 40s, last fall used her racing skills and experience to win a silver medal at the Atlantic Universities cross-country championship wearing Memorial colors. She has scored three wins this year and her only losses have been to Bazeley. McIlroy will finish third.
Alison Walsh’s 29:47 win at the Mews 8K race was her second victory this year; she was also first home at the Harbourfront 10K race. She had notable performances at the Max half-marathon, the Garnish race and the Molson Light 10K. Walsh likes the longer events and the Tely suits her endurance and strength. She will place fourth.
Royal Newfoundland Constabulary constable Janelle Simmons won at Burtons Pond early in the season and has four top three finishes at other races. From the days when she ran cross-country races for Memorial to the present, she has shown she can run hard and fast with a unique full-tilt style that makes her great fun to watch. I am saying Simmons will finish fifth.
Newcomer Adrienne Kaul has turned a lot of heads in racing circles this year. The long striding Kaul, who ran cross-country at Guelph University, has five top three finishes to date including a strong second place at the Mews 8K race. We could see an interesting race between Kaul and Simmons but I think Kaul will have to settle for sixth.
Karen Stacey had a very good 2011 season, including running 62:03 for fifth at last year’s Tely 10. She has not raced this season, but I anticipate she will run well at this year’s race. Like Alison Walsh, Stacey thrives on the long ones and I see her in seventh.
Wendy Turner of Ontario was sixth last year, one place behind Stacey. Turner is in her early 40s, and has recorded an 18:58 for five kilometers and 39:49 for ten kilometers at races in Southern Ontario during the past year. She should run well enough this year to be eighth.
Krissy Dooling has had a long running career. She ran cross-country for St. Francis Xavier and the University of Alberta earlier in the decade and won at every distance from 5K to the half-marathon on the local scene. She races infrequently now, but a second-place finish Janelle Simmons at Burtons Pond indicates she still has the right stuff to run successfully to ninth place.
Sherri Lynn Burden is having her best season ever. Often plagued by injuries in the past, this year she seems to have put that behind her and looked stronger in every race. She has notched up six top five finishes in 2012, which included placing third at Burton’s Pond and the Run for Freedom. Burden will grab that coveted 10th position.
As with the men’s field, there are a number of women who would love to prove me wrong. Katie Wadden will want to finish in the top 10 and a 39:26 run at the Molson Light 10 km indicates that strong possibility. Watch for Memorial cross-country runners Laura Lawes and Melanie Amminson to be in the chase as well as triathlete Nicole Graham. Joanne McNeill can’t be counted out, along with Sherri Meyers and Florida resident Melanie Hynes, who has run well recently in the Sunshine State.
THE WOMEN