Luc Bruchet gets 'redemption' with 2nd straight national cross-country title

Luc Bruchet went out hard in Saturday's 10K and never looked back, coasting to victory for the second time in as many years at the Canadian cross-country championships in Kingston, Ont.

The 27-year-old from Vancouver battled cool and rainy conditions on a muddy Fort Henry course before crossing the finish line with a championship belt gesture in 29 minutes 54.9 seconds.

"This one really meant a lot to me," Bruchet told Athletics Canada after the race. "I didn't have a track season in the summer [due to injury] and this was redemption for me a little.

Bruchet's closest competitor was former Southern Utah University runner Mike Tate of Antigonish, N.S., who clocked 30:07.6, while Courtice, Ont., native Evan Esselink — who formerly ran at Indiana University — was third in 30:13.9.

NCAA stars

Ehab El-Sandali, who attends Iona College in New York, rounded out the top four runners who receive automatic berths to the 2019 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships March 30 in Aarhus, Denmark.

"There are a number of great Canadians out here. I just tried to run my race and it paid off in the end," he said.

This year marked the first time senior athletes didn't have to race at cross-country nationals to represent Canada at the world event.

• The other two spots on the senior men's and women's teams, along with the U20 men's and women's squads, will be filled by athletes who met a specific standard in the last 12 months, or rank top 32 in the world, in either the 5,000, 10,000, 3000 steeplechase or marathon. They would be placed in rank order based on their performance relative to the standard.
• Should spots remain, athletes would be selected by Saturday's order of finish from fifth to 10th.

Bruchet, who was runner-up to Ross Proudfoot in 2016, said he will soon prepare for a return to the track after finishing second in the 5,000 at the Stanford Invitational on March 30 in California before missing about four months of training.

'Emotional issues'

Meanwhile, 3,000-metre steeplechase specialist Geneviève Lalonde of Moncton took the lead midway through the senior women's 10K en route to a winning time of 33:47.3.

The 27-year-old, who hadn't raced at nationals since her 12th-place performance in 2012 at Vancouver, reached her goal of qualifying for worlds after enduring "emotional issues" and an Achilles injury at the end of the track season.

Lalonde, who looked strong throughout Saturday's race, admitted to being "a little afraid" at the start because she felt so good.

"I had to tell myself it was a 10K race, not a 2K race," said Lalonde, who set a Canadian women's steeplechase record of 9:29.99 at the 2017 world track and field championships. "With a couple of laps left [on the rolling 2.5-kilometre loop course] I knew I had a lot left in the tank."

Wodak runner-up

In April, Lalonde battled through a hamstring injury to finish seventh in the steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games, two months after setting a personal-best time of 8:49.78 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston.

Vancouver's Natasha Wodak, who was national cross-country champion in 2015, improved upon last year's fourth-place finish by crossing the line second on Saturday in 34:06.4.

Last year's winner Claire Sumner was third and Katelyn Ayers, who trains with Lalonde at the Speed River Track and Field Club in Guelph, Ont., came fourth.

Saturday's other winners:

• U20 men: Tyler Dozzi, Terrace, B.C. (24:48.9)​
• U20 women: Brogan MacDougall, Kingston (20:20.7)​
• U18 boys: Ron MacLean, Regina (19:03.9)​
• U18 girls: Kendra Lewis, Vancouver (14:12.0)
• Masters 8K: Michael Gill, Oakville, Ont. (26:56.4)

On Tuesday, the National Team Committee is expected to unveil Canada's senior men's and women's squads, along with the under-20 men's and women's teams that will compete in Denmark.