Chris Balestrini of London, Ont., delivered an enormous victory for Canada in southern Saskatchewan on Saturday through successful gold in the 2023 North and Central American Mountain and Path Working Championships’ 50K and shattering the Beaver Flat 50 route file within the procedure.
Balestrini, who has held the Canadian 50K file (2:48:32) for greater than two years, sliced greater than 25 mins off the former route file set through Vancouver’s Mike Sidic in 2018 (4:37:21), completing this 12 months’s race in 4:11:25.
Underscoring the energy of Balestrini’s efficiency was once the truth he completed nearly 20 mins forward of his closest competitor, even because the second- and third-place finishers additionally broke Sidic’s earlier route file. Adam Sjolund ran 4:30:47 to take silver for the US, with Mexico’s Miguel Ángel Pérez Alvarado taking bronze in 4:35:38.
The flicker of irony within the route’s identify wasn’t misplaced on Sjolund, who titled his Strava access from Saturday’s race “beaver no longer flat 50k.” The route, positioned in Saskatchewan’s Touchdown Provincial Park, options greater than 2,300 metres of elevation acquire and “hill repeats within the worst roughly approach,” stated race organizer Jeff Dudar. “There’s cacti, juniper trees, rock, sand, snakes and water.”
In an Instagram publish following the race, Balestrini congratulated his competition for a way they met the problem of prime temperatures and difficult terrain in Saturday’s race. “All the time an honour to lace up the path footwear with the Canadian Group. Gorgeous ridge line operating, numerous punchy climbs, and a blazing solar beating down on us set the level for an epic duel within the hills of Saskatchewan,” he wrote.
Balestrini stated the race “began out sizzling, up some of the steeper climbs of the [day] ahead of descending onto the ridge. A couple of American citizens have been pushing challenging and we traded surges and positions rather a couple of occasions within the first 35K. I made a transfer and were given a small hole so I stored the pedal right down to the end. When the 50K and a couple of,300m vertical acquire was once stated and achieved, I got here away with the hard-fought win.”
He added that whilst he’s no longer certain what’s subsequent for him after Saturday’s win, “I do have some placements in Alberta & BC arising, so possibly some late-season mountain operating ahead of I transfer gears to the roads for the CIM Marathon in December!”
Within the girls’s 50K, North Vancouver’s Shannon Penway ran 5:21:37 to win silver for Canada. American citizens Sarah Biehl (5:10:26) and Kristina Randrup (5:30:27) gained gold and bronze respectively.
Along with the 50K, Touchdown Provincial Park additionally hosted the NACAC Championships’ Vintage Up and Down, a 10K match with 420 metres of elevation acquire. Care Nelson of Victoria ran 49:39 to win bronze for Canada, with American citizens Gabrielle Orie (47:22.4) and Megan Lacy (48:45.7) completing within the best two spots.
American Liam Meirow crowned the rostrum of the boys’s race in 40:42, adopted through Justino Luz Coronado (41:24) and Jesus Quiroz de l. a. Cruz (41:51) of Mexico.