Canada's Lanni Marchant marks comeback with 11th-place finish in New York City Marathon

Lanni Marchant was the top Canadian in the New York Marathon on Sunday, finishing 11th to mark her triumphant return to the event.

The 37-year-old from London, Ont., who has battled injuries for several years, finished the 42.2-kilometre race in two hours 32 minutes 54 seconds.

Kenyans finished atop the podium, with Albert Korir winning the men's race, and Peres Jepchirchir taking the women's event.

Marchant ran both the 10,000 metres and marathon at the 2016 Rio Olympics before she was sidelined with a hip injury that required several surgeries to repair.

The former Canadian record-holder in the women's marathon wrote in an Instagram post the eve of Sunday's marathon that "Life these past 5 years has been beyond hard. The physical scars on my body only reflect a small portion of the emotional scars I'll carry with me over 42.2km - but that's the point of it all, isn't it?

"We get hurt, we heal, we scar, but we keep going."

Toronto's Rachel Hannah placed 16th in 2:39:15, Vancouver's Kate Gustafson 22nd (2:45:48) and Krista DuChene 25th (2:52:56).

2019 injury 'blessing in disguise'

Sunday marked Marchant's first race since Oct. 28, 2020 when she was 11th among women in 1:14:07 in the Michigan Pro Half Marathon, her first 21.1 km competition since March 2017 in New York City.

"Building back has to start somewhere," Marchant told CBC Sports at the time. "I was a bit slower than what I would have liked and getting on a start line is something to celebrate these days."

In May 2018, Marchant had left hip surgery to repair a torn labrum, bone spur and nerve impingement. A stress reaction in her right femur (thighbone) late in 2019 was "a blessing in disguise" as it helped Marchant and her support team identify other issues on her right side.

After speaking with "close to 15" sports medicine experts who missed a substantial injury from 2013 until her surgery, Marchant experienced a breakthrough in the winter of 2017 while attending a media event hosted by her sponsor Under Armour in Portland, Ore., where sport scientist Michael Watts noticed something was off with her gait.

When initial testing determined Marchant's left foot didn't push off with power, doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota did gait analysis with nerve conduction and discovered her gait problems cleared when the hip was numbed.

"Fixing the hip was about getting back my quality of life," Marchant said. "I was so tired of being in pain and wanted to run pain-free. I think every athlete going through a major injury wonders if it's worth it but I think I'd be more disappointed if I didn't try."