The footprints of a pair of Canadian Olympians have long pounded Guelph’s running trails. That fact was on everyone’s mind Sunday morning, as local competitive runners gathered in Fergus, first to watch two locally trained distance runners compete in the Olympic marathon, and then to participate in a run — albeit a much shorter one — of their own.
Eric Gillis, 32, and Reid Coolsaet, 33, along with fellow Canadian Dylan Wykes, 29, were in a field of 105 runners for the marathon in London. Gillis and Coolsaet train locally under coach Dave Scott-Thomas.
The gun sounded for the race at about 6 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, and about 50 of the nearly 150 runners participating in the Fergus Highland Games 10k race were clued to a large-screen television watching the big race that had a surprising result.
All three Canadians got stronger as the race progressed, and all finished in the top 30. Wykes of Kingston, finished 20th, Gillis from Antigonish, N.S., was 22nd, and Coolsaet, a Hamilton native and a CME alumnus, came in 27th.
