Canada Running Series – Jackson and Elmore have strong wins at Harry\’s Spring Run-Off 8k to Fight Prostate Cancer

Vancouver, March 20, 2011 — In a surprise upset, Abbotsford's David Jackson outran defending champion and pre-race favourite Willy Kimosop at the fifth annual Harry's Spring Run-Off Vancouver 8k. In the women's race, last year's winner Malindi Elmore once again had no close competition, easily besting the field by nearly a minute.

Getting the 2011 Canada Running Series off to a fast start, Jackson and Elmore led over 1150 runners around the world famous Stanley Park Seawall under beautiful blue skies — rare and welcome sunshine in an unusually cold and damp West Coast spring. Spirits were further lifted by the record $200,000+ raised for prostate cancer research at VGH.

Jackson and Kimosop broke away from the crowd right from the start. Only Langley's Steve Osadiuk was able to go after them, shadowing the pair by about 5 seconds as they circled Lost Lagoon and headed out around the seawall. Osaduik caught up at 5k and for the next couple of kilometres the trio stayed together, exchanging the lead several times. Then Jackson made his move. "I didn't want it to come down to a sprint against those guys," said Jackson. "I don't have that kind of speed — I have to go early." And go he did, opening up a 7 second gap over Kimosop over the final 800 metres, with Osadiuk a further 5 seconds back at the finish.

Jackson, who is coached by previous Harry's SRO winner Jon Brown, was very happy with his time of 24:19. "That was 50 seconds faster than I ran here last year — and a personal best for me," he said. "This bodes well for next month at the Sun Run."

2011 women's winner Malindi Elmore (photo by Chris Relke)

In contrast the women's repeat victory posed no problem for Elmore,  whose 26:43 clocking went unchallenged. The $1000 first prize made a nice belated birthday present for the 2010 Sun Run champion, who turned 31 a week ago.

Behind Elmore, Port Moody's Natasha Wodak and Calgary's Lisa Harvey ran together for the first kilometre before Harvey dropped back. Wodak went on to achieve a personal best by 12 seconds. Vancouver's Gillian Gook overtook a struggling Harvey to claim third spot.

Harvey did manage to recapture the Masters title that she gave up last year, while hanging on to fourth spot. On the men's side, Vancouver's Kevin O'Connor also earned a fourth place overall finish while taking the Masters title.

For many people, the highlight of the day was the record $200,000+ raised for prostate cancer research — exceeding the fundraising target by $50,000. Founded in 1998, the Vancouver Prostate Centre at VGH has become Canada's leading — and one of the world's foremost — prostate cancer research and treatment centres. Over 2,500 patients are seen annually by the Vancouver Prostate Centre.

There were a number of teams running for the fastest team results, but Deloitte's team came out on top with a fastest 4 time of just 2:07:37. Teams from VFAC Blue Cheetahs, Douglas College Running Club, Methanex, The Right Shoe, Busby Perkins & Will, Harry Rosen, The Nomads, UBC Alpha Kappa Psi, George Marr Realty, Ron's Runners, Rod's PSA Team, BDO Canada LLP, Running Joe's, The Seahorses and Grandview all had strong showings.

Full results can be viewed at www.canadarunningseries.com/spring8k/