John Parry locks down top spot at Intersport Tuesday night fun run

Taking a break from what seems like almost 24/7 TV coverage of the Olympics, 24 runners and walkers participated in the weekly Intersport 5 km Run and Walk last Tuesday evening.

Taking a break from what seems like almost 24/7 TV coverage of the Olympics, 24 runners and walkers participated in the weekly Intersport 5 km Run and Walk last Tuesday evening.           

A member of Yukon’s sports glitterati, Yukon’s 2007 Male Athlete of the Year David Greer, made his first appearance of the season. Greer’s presence added speed and drama to an event that is always exciting.         
After finishing in first place two weeks ago and second last week, University of Alaska at Fairbanks cross country skier John Parry was voted back on the island this week taking over first place again (17:51).
To finish in first place, Parry had to survive a jaw-dropping sprint in the last 50 meters that pitted him against one of Yukon’s fastest masters runners Dave Brook (17:54), Canada Winter Games gold medalist in cross country skiing Greer (17:56) and Parry’s UAF teammate Cody Priest (18:09). Behind this pack of high octane athletes were five runners who all ran under the 20 minute mark.
Bill Matiation, who ran each kilometre more quickly than the last one, was fifth (18:57) overtaking Keith Thaxter in the last kilometre.
Thaxter, who ran the route of the Chocolate Claim 10-miler earlier in the day, took sixth place (19:31). Running prodigy 14-year-old Fabian Brook ran his first “sub-20” 5 km finishing seventh (19:47).
Not far behind Brook in eighth place was Kenji Tatsumi who posted a personal best by running his first sub-20 (19:49) and by passing ninth place finisher Tom Ullyett (19:54) in the last 300 metres.
This season’s most successful 5 km female runner, Sue Bogle, returned to her familiar first place spot on the podium and came close to toppling the 20 minute barrier with a time of 20:20.

One of Bogle’s rivals, the smooth running Josianne Markley, was not far behind (20:48) and took second place.

Sandra Orban took third place honours trailing Markley by just over a minute (21:50).
Making a cameo appearance was masters runner and skier Lori Greer. She took fourth place and posted a time (22:05) that was, astonishingly, just four seconds slower that the last time she participated in a Tuesday night run 10 years ago.
Fourth place finisher Cynthia Freeman had Greer in her sights the whole way and finished just 14 seconds behind (22:19).
In fifth place, Megan Phillips worked hard to keep her time under the 24 minute mark covering the route in 23:55.
Masters runner Lena Nielsen finished sixth (26:34) holding off Jeanne Burke (26:40) and two other runners in the 26-minute range, expert runner Christine Paradis (26:44) and cross country skier and cyclist Ziggy Reimer (26:52).
Once again, sparks flew amongst the race walkers. Ruth Hall and Tanya Astika started out behind Rick Griffiths, but Hall and Tanya made a move at the two km mark that put them ahead of Griffiths.
Then, on the downhill section just after the three km mark, Hall charged ahead of Astika and held the lead finishing first in 34:41. Astika finished second (34:58) with Griffiths third (35:28).