The Canada Roller Marathon 2021: Moving forward

Although the heat was overwhelming at times, the atmosphere was light at the second edition of the Canada Roller Marathon.

Text and Photo: Carl Savard

In 2019, the organizers had pulled out all the stops to organize a major inline skating event. Some world famous French skaters had made the trip to Canada to take part in the inaugural edition. Hugo Gerard, a young skater from France, won the 42km event ahead of Canadians Jordan Belchos and Julien Armand. The world situation of the last months having forced the cancellation of the 2020 edition and complicated the organization this year, it is towards the local talent that the attention was turned on August 22nd.

Besides the heat, the wind was also present on the PMG Technologie track in Blainville for the second edition of the Canada Roller Marathon, but nothing was going to discourage the skaters from Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick. If the main event of the day had started with a train of ten skaters during the first three or four 3km loops, the leading group went to six and then five athletes before a breakaway of two skaters sealed the outcome of the race. It was Julien Armand who completed the fourteen laps of the track in first place ahead of Peter Doucet who had made the trip from Toronto to Blainville in the early morning hours to participate in the event. Third place overall went to Chandra Mouli Danda. The three skaters had finished 3rd, 6th and 9th respectively in the first edition in 2019. Bethany Santourian was the only female athlete doing the marathon as a solo participant and finished 11th overall on the distance.

In addition to the 42km marathon, races of 350m, 6km, 9km and 12km as well as a half marathon were on the program this year.

For the complete results click HERE

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