Posted: July 15, 2007

Athletics: Ongeri and Githuka win inaugural Nissan Toronto Ten Miler

TORONTO. July 15th. On a beautiful, mild, sunny morning with blue skies and low humidity, Kenyans Josephat Ongeri and Pauline Githuka led almost 1500 runners around the inaugural Nissan Toronto Ten Miler. Another 500 participated in the accompanying 5K. Temperatures were around 15 degrees for the 8am start at The Historic Distillery District. Billed at "the" official tune up for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon & Half, the event was also run on the second-half of the Waterfront route, through scenic Tommy Thompson Park. The race added a new distance to the Canada Running Series calendar, and was received with considerable enthusiasm. The men's Ten Miler was a closely contested affair from start to finish. Toronto's Danny Kassap led a pack of twelve through a pedestrian first kilometre in 3:05. The group settled in and remained together until almost 7k when Ongeri moved to the front and put in a surge as the course dipped down and back up over a scenic Bailey bridge in Tommy Thompson Park. Immediately the group was down to four. Ongeri went hard again after the 5 mile mark [24:02], and there were only two--Ongeri and Ottawa's Joseph Nsengiyumva. The two then ran shoulder to shoulder over the breezy second half of the course. Ongeri made minor surges on two or three occasions over the last mile to test the mettle of his opponent. Convinced he had the leg speed, the Kenyan was prepared to wait until the final 200m on Trinity Street before sprinting away for the victory on the bricks of The Distillery, 48:45 to Nsengiyumva's 48:47. Kenyan Henry Githuka was third in 48:59. In contrast, the women's field was very thin, with Pauline Githuka [Henry's sister] coasting around, uncontested in 59:07. Toronto's Jennifer Faraone came second in 61:19, building on her strong outing at the Scotiabank Vancouver Half three weeks ago, where she was fourth. Milton's Josianne Aboungono limped home third in 62:59. The sold-out crowd of 2,000 gave the new distance, the course, and the venue "two thumbs up" as they celebrated to the electrifying beat of Dr.Draw at the post-run concert. Full results and photos at CanadaRunningSeries.com. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest