Kimeli and Ziani win the 2019 Ottawa 10K race

Two women fight to the finish to earn first place and the race’s Gender Prize

Ottawa, May 25, 2019 – This evening’s most dramatic moment was witnessing two elite women compete to the wire for a coveted first place finish in the Ottawa 10K race.

In the end, 21-year-old Kenyan Dorcas Kimeli’s time of 31:09 was just 3 seconds faster than the 31:12 finish by fellow Kenyan Valery Jemeli, 27.

Kimeli also won the race’s Gender Prize, awarded when a woman crosses the finish line ahead of the lead man with the 3 minute 40 second start time advantage given to elite women. For tonight’s work, Kimeli takes home $5,000 for her first place result and an additional $2,000 for the Gender Prize.

Tonight’s fastest man was 26-year-old Moroccan Mohammed Ziani, who led with a time of 28:12. Ziani is no stranger to Ot The Moroccan star won the race in 2016 with a time of 28:38 and his 28:23 finish last year placed him fourth overall.

No course records were broken tonight, but Vancouver-based Natasha Wodak’s time of 32:31 earned her the women’s 2019 10K Canadian National Championship title – her first after four consecutive 2^nd place finishes. Wodak, 37, is enjoying a strong year. She came to Ottawa with a Vancouver Sun Run win under her belt and her second fastest 10,000 metre race with a time of 31:43 at California’s Payton Jordan Invitational.

The race’s fastest Canadian man tonight was Ottawa’s own Dylan Wykes, 35, who posted a time of 29:56 – taking home this year’s men’s 10K Canadian National Championship title.

“The Ottawa 10K race’s IAAF Gold Label status always attracts the best of the world’s elite athletes, and tonight’s race produced very strong finish times,” said Manny Roddrigues, Elite Athlete Coordinator, Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend.

2019 Ottawa 10K winners

Men

Women

Top 20_Ottawa 10K 2019

Canadian Cancer Society wins $1,000 in 2019 10K Dream Team Challenge

Earlier this year, Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend organizers invited four Canadian elites to each pick three elites to be part of their Dream Team. The fastest team competed for $6,000 to be shared amongst the four, as well as $1,000 for the captain’s Scotiabank Charity Challenge charity of choice.

This 2019 winning Dream Team was led by Captain Justin Kent and included Valery Jemeli (Kenya), Stacey Ndiwa (Kenya) and Mohamed Reda El Aaraby (Morocco). Each member took home $1,500 in addition to his or her individual prize money, and $1,000 went to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Related information

2019 Ottawa 10K – Top 20 finishers

Awards and prizes

2019 Media Guide

About Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend

The 2019 Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend took place May 25-26 and welcomed more than 31,000 participants in six races, including the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon, the Scotiabank Half Marathon, the Ottawa 10K, the Ottawa 5K, the Ottawa 2K and Scotiabank Ottawa Kids Marathon. In 2018, runners raised $800,000 for local and national charities through the Scotiabank Charity Challenge.

The Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend is one of only two running events in the world to host two IAAF Gold Label races: the Ottawa 10K and the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon. For more information or to register: www.runottawa.ca