Stellar Fields set for Saturday's Summerfast 10K

The Vancouver Falcons’ Summerfast 10K in Stanley Park on Saturday morning has attracted stellar fields, with the BC 10K Championship and the Timex BC Road Running Series titles on the line.

The women’s race will be a re-match for the top-4 finishers from the Vancouver Sun Run. In April, Rachel Cliff was the clear winner (33:14), followed by the Yukon’s Lindsay Carson, BMO Vancouver Marathon champion Kimberley Doerksen, and recent BC 5K Champion and top master Catherine Watkins. Added to the mix will be former Sun Run champion Natasha Wodak, and 5K Championship runner-up Sabrina Wilkie. All but Carson will be competing for the BC Championship title.

Doerksen, Watkins, Wodak and Wilkie will also be battling for Timex Series honours, in this the final race in the 2014 series. Watkins currently holds a slim lead in the rankings over Doerksen. Both could improve their current scores by discarding slower performances. Wodak and Wilkie meanwhile need to finish Summerfast in order to score the minimum 5 races. The permutations are endless – Doerksen could leap-frog Watkins by running quicker than 35:24, but only if Watkins runs slower than that time; Wodak could surpass both if she runs a similar time, but again only if the other two don’t also run under that time. All have personal bests well under 35 minutes. Wodak set the course record of 35:01 last year, with Doerksen 21 seconds behind. And Watkins holds the masters record. To the series winner goes $1,000, with $500 for second and $300 for third. Wilkie would appear to have the lock on $200 for fourth place if she finishes.

On the men’s side, course record holder (29:57) Kelly Wiebe may defend his title, but will be hard pressed to do so by training partner Dylan Wykes who ran the fastest 10K by a Canadian this year when finishing runner-up at the Vancouver Sun Run (29:11).

Neither Wiebe nor Wykes are eligible for the BC Championship, as they still represent their native Saskatchewan and Ontario respectively. That will likely leave the Championship open to Theo Hunt, who finished second at Summerfast last year, or Adam Byles.

In the men’s Timex Series, Geoff Martinson, who is not expected to run on Saturday, has an unassailable lead. Hunt and Byles will also be battling for second place in the Series. Hunt has to finish in under 31:05 to have a chance of taking second away from Byles. But Byles could improve his own score if he runs 31:38 or quicker. Top master Kevin O’Connor meanwhile has the lock on fourth place with the Yukon’s Logan Roots ineligible.

The action gets underway at 8:00am Saturday morning at Ceperley Park (2^nd Beach), following the Stanley Park seawall in an anti-clockwise direction, to finish back at Ceperley Park.

Late registration and other information can be found on the race website at www.summerfast.ca

Timex BC Road Running Series details can be found at www.bcathletics.org/TimexRRSeries