A trio of Canadians will be chasing history when they line up for the Olympic men's marathon today.
Reid Coolsaet, Dylan Wykes and Eric Gillis will take aim once again at Jerome Drayton's Canadian record - the oldest national track and field record on the books.
While all three will be racing for position more than time, they know that, on a good day, the record is in danger.
Drayton's mark of two hours 10 minutes nine seconds has eluded sa国际传媒's best marathoners for 37 years.
But Dave ScottThomas, coach of Coolsaet and Gillis, said under the right conditions the mark could fall in London.
"I don't know what the balance is between sounding egotistical and cocky and just sounding confident, but we want to be on the confident end of things," the coach said.
"I never wake up thinking, 'Oh, we'll be lucky if this happens.' I wake up thinking these guys have given me the trust to design a program to get them to optimal performance. And every day I come here, I think that optimal performance is significantly faster than 2: 10."
Wykes, 29, from Kingston, Ont., has come closest, running 2: 10.47 in April. Reid, 33, a Hamilton., Ont., native ran 2: 10.55 in horrible conditions last fall, while Gillis, 32, from Antigonish, N.S., has a best time of 2: 11.28.
"If the temperature is right and the conditions are right, these guys are ready," said Martin Goulet, Athletics sa国际传媒's high-performance director. "We have three very solid guys who are very well coached, which is for any event the key factor.
"We are expecting them to negotiate that race very well and come up with great performances."
Goulet said a top-24 finish among the 109 runners would be a good result for the Canadians. He believes one might make the top 12.
sa国际传媒 has not had an entry in the marathon since Bruce Deacon at the 2000 Sydney Games. The last time sa国际传媒 had three runners was at the 1996 Atlanta Games where Peter Fonseca was the top Canadian in 21st, ahead of Carey Nelson and Deacon.
