Updated with correction, noting Bazeley had a faster time in 2018 Toronto half-marathon
A quartet of female runners from Newfoundland posted some outstanding times in races that were part of the 2019 Canadian Marathon Championships, held in Toronto on Sunday.
The group included defending Tely 10 women's champion Anne Johnston of Torbay, who was the second female across the finish line in the half-marathon event.
Johnston covered the distance — just over 21 kilometres (or 13 miles) — in a personal-best time of one hour, 15 minutes and 24 seconds. That left her only 12 seconds behind the fastest female in the half-marathon, Brittany Moran of Etobicioke, Ont.
Johnston was 36th overall in the half-marathon, which attracted a field of nearly 10,000 runners, including 4,715 females.
Meanwhile, Julia Howard of St. John's was the fourth-fastest female in the race in a time 1:17:03. Howard was 42nd overall.
Johnston and Howard were 1-2 in the women's 35-39 age group, and Jennifer Barron of Paradise was fifth in the same category in 1:21:39, a clocking that put her in the top 100 overall (89th) and 11th amongst females.
The fourth female runner from this province who shone Sunday was Kate Bazeley of St. John's, who was the 14th fastest female and 47th overall in the marathon. Bazeley's time over 42-plus kilometres (26-plus miles) was 2:36:35 and left her second in the marathon's 35-39 gender age group.
There were nearly 4,000 runners, including just over 1,200 females, who competed over the full marathon distance.
Bazeley set a provincial record in her race, breaking her own record. She also owns the fastest provincial time in the half-marathon, a 1:14:50 she ran in Toronto last year.
Sunday's event was officially the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, but doubled as the national championships as well as a Canadian trials for the marathon at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Other notable results for Newfoundlanders Sunday in Toronto:
Marathon
• Peter Bazeley, St. John's: 2:38.22, 61st overall, 36th-fastest male, sixth in 35-39 male category
Half-marathon
• Darren Goulding, C.B.S.: 1:23.48, 117th overall, 98th-fastest male
Five kilometres
• Daniel Macdonald, St. John's 12th overall, 11th male, second in 35-39 male category (Note: there were 7,000 runners in 5K race, including more than 2,650 males)
