Scotiabank announces $20,000 cash bonus for Women’s Canadian All-comers record
Biktimirova and Gigi confirmed to join Sobanska

E-mail this page  Printer-friendly page

Posted Monday, 10 September, 2007

TORONTO. September 10, 2007. Scotiabank today announced a C$20,000 cash bonus for anyone who can set a new Women’s Canadian All-comers record at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on September 30th. The existing mark is 2:26:01, set by Romania’s Lidia Simon at the World Championships Marathon in Edmonton in 2001. Scotiabank has already confirmed a C$20,000 bonus for a new Men’s All-comers record of sub 2:09:55, a time that was so narrowly missed last year by Kenyan Daniel Rono, when he ran 2:10:15.

Joining last year’s returning champion, Malgorzata Sobanska of Poland, in the dash for the women’s cash, will be Russian Alevtina Biktimirova and Ethiopians Asha Gigi and Merima Denboba. Only 25 years old, Biktimirova began her marathon career in Canada, when she ran a 2:32:15 debut at Ottawa in the Spring of 2004. That was good for second place, behind Russian-Canadian, Lioudmila Kortchaguina, who now calls Toronto home and represented Canada in Osaka. Biktimirova, from Cheboksary on the Volga River 800km east of Moscow, burst onto the world scene with a 2:25:12 in Frankfurt in 2005. She then placed 6th at Boston in 2006 with a 2:26:58; she was 6th in the European Championships marathon; then 6th at Honolulu ’06 in 2:29:42.

At 34 years, Asha Gigi is an experienced veteran who has represented Ethiopia at a variety of distances, from the World Cross Country Championships to 10,000m on the track, as well as the marathon. More recently, in her15-year athletics career, she has focused on the marathon, running her PR of 2:26:05 in Paris in 2004 [2nd]. A native of Arsi, Asha was 4th at Berlin last Fall, and 3rd at Paris this Spring, running 2:29:11 on a warm morning.

Another experienced Ethiopian, 33 year old Merima Denboba is better known for her shorter distance achievements. She has represented Ethiopia 11 times at the World Cross, including a second-place finish in 1999, third-place in 2003, and 8 top-ten finishes. On the track, she has run 8:45 for 3,000m, 15:06 for 5000m and 31:33 for 10000m; she also has a decent half marathon of 69:36, run in Lisbon in 2004. Merima is now trying to move up to the marathon. She tried the distance in the Spring of 2005 in Milan for the first time and didn't have a good time [2:43]. After a break from the beast in 2006, she then came back strong and ran 2:32 in both Lahore in January ’07 and Hamburg in April this year. She seems to be getting the hang of the 42km distance. Once she does, who knows how fast she can go?

Rounding out the women’s Start List will be France’s Svetlana Pretot and Argentina’s Claudia Camargo. Pretot surprised a lot of people with her 2:32:50, that gave her second place at the challenging, Rock’n Roll Marathon in June. The outing was a major breakthrough, and also showed that she was not afraid to run against, and beat some of the more-favoured Africans.

“This is by far the best women’s field we’ve had at Toronto Waterfront,” said Race Director Alan Brookes. “There’s definitely a chance we can give away the $20,000 if we have a good day. And believe it or not, there’s only ever been one sub-2:30 performance by a woman on Canadian soil, outside of the World Championships in 2001. That was Lioudmila Kortchaguina’s 2:29:41 in winning Ottawa in May 2006. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get 3 or 4 at Toronto Waterfront this year?”

WOMEN
Number
Hometown
PR [year]

Malgorzata Sobanska
F1
Poznan, Poland
2:26:08 [2001]

Alevtina Biktimirova
F2
Cheboksary, Russia
2:25:12 [2005]

Asha Gigi
F3
Arsi, Ethiopia
2:26:05 [2004]

Merima Denboba
F4
Arsi, Ethiopia
2:32:54 [2007]

Svetlana Pretot
F6
France
2:32:50 [2007]

Claudia Camargo
F7
Argentina
2:35:04 [2006]

Lisa Harvey
F10
Team Canada [Calgary, AB]
2:48:56 [2007]

Jenny Clague
F12
Team GB
2:36:10 [2006]

Alice Braham
F14
Team GB
2:40:36 [2006]

Alicia Rodriguez
F15
Team Mexico
2:36:16 [2004]

Araceli Juarez
F16
Team Mexico
2:51:52 [2006]

Melissa Gacek
F17
Minnesota, USA
2:47:59 [2007]

Ariana Quino Salazar
F18
Mexico
2:39:17 [2007]

Janelle Morisson
F20
Team Canada [Fort St. John, BC]
2:54:24 [2007]

Liz Maguire
F21
Osgoode, ON
2:53:43 [2007]

 E-mail this page
 Printer-friendly page