Flanagan obliterates Canadian 5K mark, dominates Boston road race with Very Nice teammates

Ben Flanagan ran to his second Canadian record in six months in Saturday's Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) 5K, reaching the finish in 13 minutes 26 seconds for second place, nine seconds ahead of Charles Philibert-Thiboutot's winning time and national mark from last year's race.

Last October, Flanagan took 38 seconds off his previous best in the half marathon, posting a then-Canadian record of one hour one minute in Valencia. It now belongs to Cam Levins, who clocked 1:00:18 in in Vancouver in February on his way to setting a 2:05:36 North American mark three weeks later in the Tokyo Marathon.

The 28-year-old Flanagan was confident entering Saturday's road race on a cloudy, cool morning with only a slight wind, two days before the 127th Boston Marathon.

"The [record] is definitely a big goal of mine," the Kitchener, Ont., native and 2024 Olympic hopeful told CBC Sports earlier this week. Flanagan ran 13:38 last Sept. 11 at the Medavie Canadian 5K championships in Moncton, N.B.

"I'm excited to go for it again," he said, "and this is a race [in Boston] where I've got no doubt it'll be set up well enough with the [calibre] of athletes attending."

Philibert-Thiboutot fell short of his goal to win on Saturday, placing 12th in 13:32, a three-second personal best. A day earlier, the 2022 Canadian champion in the 5,000 metres on the track told CBC Sports training has been going well since he contracted pneumonia during the indoor season.

"I am ready for any type of race, slow or fast," said the 32-year-old from Quebec City, a 2016 Olympian and 2022 world semifinalist in the 1,500. "[Boston] is not a particularly fast course but if the race turns out to be fast, I will be ready."

Flanagan, who set three Canadian road race records last year — including the 10K at the B.A.A. competition — was certain Saturday's event would be won under 13:35. Morgan Beadlescomb, the sixth-year star athlete from Michigan State University, topped the field of 3,885 men's participants in 13:25.

"He's a phenomenal up-and-coming athlete," said Flanagan of Beadlescomb. "The only downside about him is he went to Michigan State, so we were rivals [in college]."

In June 2018, Flanagan won an NCAA Division 1 title on the track with the University of Michigan in the men's 10,000 metres. He and Beadlescomb are now teammates with the Very Nice Track Club in Ann Arbor, Mich., headed up by 80-year-old Ron Warhurst, the retired University of Michigan track coach.

Eyeing world championship standard in May

"We've put in a great training block," said Flanagan, noting a lack of workouts left him "a little underprepared" for the 10,000 on March 4 at the TEN competition in California. "I'm excited to showcase where I'm at and honestly see for myself because at this time of year you don't really know."

Fellow VNTC member Mason Ferlic, a college teammate of Flanagan, was 15th Saturday in 13:39 while Adam Hortian, also from Kitchener, was 30th (15:06).

Flanagan is scheduled to race the 5,000 on May 6 at the Track Fest, a World Athletics Contintenal Tour Silver meet at Mt. Sac's Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut, Calif. At the Sound Running-hosted event, he believes there will be a legitimate chance to run under the 13:07 automatic qualifying standard for the Aug. 19-27 worlds in Budapest, Hungary.

I would like [the world championship] standard or my place in the [selection] rankings [solidified] by then so I can try to win that [5,000-metre] title.— Ben Flanagan on the July 27-30 Canadian championships

Flanagan also plans to race at the July 27-30 Canadian championships in Langley, B.C.

"There will be a lot of value to compete there since it's close to worlds," said Flanagan, who clocked a 13:11.12 PB in the indoor 5,000 on Jan. 27 at Boston University. "Championship-style races are good practice for what it's like to run at a world championship.

"I would like [the world] standard or my place in the [selection] rankings [solidified] by then so I can try to win that title."

In other Canadian results Saturday, Julie-Anne Staehli of Lucknow, Ont., (now based in Boston) placed 13th (15:51 PB) in the women's 5K, won by Mekides Abebe of Ethiopia.

The 29-year-old Staehli, who won the Canadian 5K road running title last year in Moncton (15:55), was 32nd in her 2020 Olympic debut.

Toronto's Jazz Shukla finished fourth in her first road mile on Saturday while Winnipeg's Erin Teschuk placed eighth. On the men's side, Corey Bellemore of Tecumseh, Ont., was fourth.

Josh Cassidy of Port Elgin, Ont., was fourth in the men's wheelchair race in 11 minutes one second, a tune-up for Monday's Boston Marathon.

It was the three-time Paralympian and 31-time Canadian champion's first full race since mid-October when Cassidy covered 42.2 kilometres in 1:39:54 as part of a test exercise at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, where a wheelchair division was offered for the first time in 33 years.