This Sunday, the 2025 Servus Edmonton Marathon will tackle a brand new function as host of the Canadian Half Marathon Championships, and the inaugural yr has drawn a stacked lineup. Each Canadian marathon document holders, Cam Levins and Natasha Wodak, will headline the boys’s and girls’s half-marathon fields with greater than $20,000 in prize cash on the road.
The lads’s subject
The lads’s race is ready to be one of the crucial aggressive in Canadian historical past, that includes the nation’s three quickest marathoners: Levins, Rory Linkletter and Ben Preisner. Levins has gained the nationwide half-marathon title the final three years when the race was held in Winnipeg. Now, in Alberta, Calgary native Linkletter will goal for his first profession nationwide title on dwelling soil as he continues his buildup towards a fall main marathon.
Levins and Preisner are additionally gearing up for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo subsequent month. Preisner clocked 2:10:32 earlier this yr on the Osaka Marathon, whereas Levins holds the Canadian marathon document at 2:05:36—additionally set in Japan. Becoming a member of them on the elite begin record are Toronto’s Andrew Alexander (62:44), Nova Scotia’s Kieran Macdonald (65:45) and Edmonton’s Nageso Nyafaro (64:34).
The ladies’s subject
On the ladies’s facet, two-time Olympian Wodak will look to defend her 2024 title and sharpen her health forward of the World Championship marathon. Fellow Canadian marathon group member Leslie Sexton, 38, will even use the race as a health take a look at. Sexton, final yr’s Canadian cross-country champion, completed second to Wodak on the 2024 Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2:33:15 however has raced sparingly in 2025.
A number of rising Canadian stars will make their half-marathon debuts, together with NCAA collegiate standouts Florence Caron and Sadie Sigfstead, each top-20 finishers at NCAA XC final fall.
One other title to observe is Kelowna-based British runner Lauren McNeil, who owns a private better of 1:10:10 from 2024. If she matches that efficiency, she’ll be powerful to beat, because the time hasn’t been matched by a Canadian feminine athlete since 2022.
The female and male champions will take dwelling a cool $2,500, whereas second and third might be awarded $1,500 and $750, respectively.
