Giguere Places 10th in World Masters Athletics Championships 1500

Greenville Track Club member Philippe Giguere competed in three events in the World Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden and  represented his native country of Canada. He ran the 5,000m, 800m and 1500m events. After placing 10th in the Men's 55-59 800-meter final last Saturday with a seasonal best of 2:11.48, he qualified for today's Men's 55=59 1500-meter final. He was one of the two automatic qualifiers from Heat 1 as he placed second with a seasonal best of 4:28.33. Previously on August 14, Philippe ran 16:48.4 to place fifth in the men's 55-59 Age Group over 5,000 meters. Including to prelim and the 800m prelim and final he will compete in five competitions at these championships. ​

He placed 10th of the 16 finalists in today's Men's 55-59 Age Group 1500m Final. 

Philippe's post race comments: "Finished 10 of 16 in the 1500 final. in windy conditions. My race plan was to go for it and follow the favorite. I went for it but not by following the favorite. I ended up taking the lead. I had the runners to my right and left try to cut me off and I accelerated to get through and that burst put me ahead of everyone. I led for 750m and purposely slowed down the 2nd lap to have someone take the lead then, but no one took the bait. I could not find another gear when I started to get passed. I didn't slow down and was able to move from 11 to 10 in the final 100m. My splits were 68.8, 72.8, 72.6, 54.5.

The favorite won with a time of 4:17.45 and third place was 4:22.53. The top 3 were the same as for the 800 and in the same order. I was 2 sec from 5th place and 11 people were sub 4:30. Having the lead early in windy conditions took a toll."