Brooke and I have been glued to our television for the past two weeks for the Olympic Games. Tomorrow it comes to an end with one of our favourite events, the men’s marathon. In checking the start list tonight, I discovered to my delight that Mustapha Bennacer is running for Algeria. Mustapha is a Canadian resident (he trains in Montreal) who runs all (and wins most) of the Canada Running Series events. We actually ran with him this year at the Spring Run-Off (he won in a time of 23:44.9), and watched him in his marathon debut in Ottawa (he came in 2nd in 2:12:03.1). It’s pretty exciting to think that he’s preparing right now for the biggest race of his life. It’s only his second marathon, but he’ll be among the best in the world. Maybe by the time the next Olympics comes around, he’ll have decided to become a Canadian citizen!
2 thoughts on “Go Mustapha!”
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Poor Mustapha was a DNF, somewhere just after the halfway mark. Last place overall went to Marcel Matanin of Slovakia, who finished in 2:50:26, 39 minutes and 31 seconds after the winner.
Best marathon story was Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil coming in to finish with a bronze medal after a lunatic pushed him off the course, knocking him out of the lead. He lost about eleven seconds, but more importantly, he was knocked right out of his rhythm and still looked overjoyed to come in third. Bravo!