Canada’s Rory Linkletter was already Canada’s second-fastest marathoner, however now, not solely is he the second-fastest particular person, however he additionally holds the second-fastest time ever run by a Canadian. Linkletter had the race of his life on Monday, ending sixth on the Boston Marathon in a private greatest time of two:07:02. It was even sooner than what Cam Levins ran on the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore., in 2022 to decrease his Canadian document (although Levins has since lowered it even additional, to 2:05:36), and much exceeded his objective of a top-10 end.
Barnstorming end. Huge race and PB for @ThePapaLinks Rory Linkletter 🇨🇦2:07:02 and sixth at in the present day’s #bostonmarathon pic.twitter.com/hEHmaNaNjC
— alan brookes, CRS (@alnbrookes) April 21, 2025
Linkletter had the most effective season of his profession in 2024, setting private bests at numerous distances, and fulfilling a lifelong dream of representing Canada on the Olympics. And he’d already put up a few very good performances this spring, setting a private better of 60:57 on the Marugame Half-Marathon in early February, adopted by a win on the Phoenix-Mesa Half Marathon six days later.
Just a little over two weeks in the past, he posted a dauntingly troublesome key exercise on Strava: two 8 km (five-mile) reps at round objective half-marathon tempo, with one mile of regular operating between. Linkletter accomplished every 8 km rep in simply over 23 minutes, averaging a powerful 2:53 per km (20.7 km/h). It was a robust indication that he was match and able to crush the Newton hills.
The Alberta native, who was our visitor on this week’s The Shakeout Podcast with host John Homosexual, the place he mentioned his hopes for the day: “Now that I’ve made an Olympic crew, one of many logical issues for me to get higher [at] between now and L.A. [the 2028 Olympics] was to race towards world-class individuals, and I really feel like Boston simply takes such pleasure in bringing in such a world-class area yearly. And it’s a racer’s race–that is all about racing. So I do know that I’m going to be racing towards people who find themselves future Olympic medallists or previous Olympic medallists, and future world marathon main champions and previous world marathon main champions. It actually simply checks each field. I do know if I may be profitable in Boston, I may be profitable anyplace.”
He’s actually come a good distance since his first look on the Boston Marathon in 2021, when the race was held in October as a result of pandemic. It was solely his third marathon (and his first world main), and he completed thirty seventh, in 2:23.
Linkletter additionally plans to race the Ottawa Marathon on Could 25, which is just 5 weeks from now. It is going to be his first marathon on Canadian soil in three years. American CJ Albertson, who had a considerably disappointing race at Boston on Monday, contemplating his previous outcomes (Albertson completed 14th, in 2:10:16) can also be planning on doing the Boston/Ottawa double.
For the total Boston Marathon story, click on right here; for full outcomes of the 129th Boston Marathon, click on right here.