First Place Finish for Chesoo at Lululemon 10km
EDMONTON, AB - JULY 8, 2019
With the CCAA cross country running season only a few months away, Thunder second year runner Leonard Chesoo has been training hard to claim top spot of the CCAA podium after a second place finish last year. This past weekend Leonard entered the Lululemon 10 km race in Edmonton, AB where he finished first in a field of 6,345 runners.
Although the traditional distance for CCAA men's competition is 8KM, long distance is Leonard's specialty and it was proven on Sunday morning when he ran a time of 29:27 for a personal best record. Among Leonard was an elite level of runners, Evan Esselink of Vancouver finished right behind him with a time of 29:57. Esselink, whose previous personal best of 30:20 was set at this race last year, finished several seconds ahead of Canadian marathon record-holder Cam Levins, who finished third with 30:14. Olympian Reid Coolsaet and Chris Balestrini were right on Levins's heels, both finishing in 30:15. Kevin Coffee was sixth (30:23), Rob Watson was seventh (31:14), Angus Rawling eighth (31:29), Bonsa Gonfa ninth (31:37) and Riley Stuermer 10th (31:57).
After an incredible rookie season for the Kenyan, Thunder head coach Matthew Norminton is excited to see what Leonard will accomplish in his sophomore year, stating "Leonard has had an outstanding first year here in Canada while attending Concordia. He improved all of his track personal best in the indoor season after his 2nd place finish at the CCAA XC nationals and with this breakthrough performance on the weekend, he would now be considered amongst the top few 10k runners in Canada. We have mapped out his next few years in terms of goals and I'm super excited to watch his continued progress while representing the Thunder"
In 2018 Leonard won a CCAA XC Silver Medal, 4 ACAC Medals and was named CCAA All-Canadian and ACAC Rookie of the year. Leonard's pursuit of another excellent season will begin on September 7th when Concordia University of Edmonton play host to the ACAC Running Room Grand Prix #1.
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Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder Athletics
The Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder Athletics program has a proud history of excellence at the highest levels both provincially and nationally. The Thunder have been a part of the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference (ACAC) since 1992 and have more than 200 student-athletes representing the school in the sports of badminton, basketball, cross country running, curling, golf, hockey, indoor track, soccer and volleyball. To learn more about Thunder Athletics, please visit http://www.gothunder.ca/.
For more information, please contact:
Nathaniel MacLellan, Program & Information Coordinator
Concordia University of Edmonton, Thunder Athletics & Recreation Department
Phone: (780) 479-9322
Email: nathaniel.maclellan@concordia.ab.ca