Natasha Wodak gave it her all. On Sunday, she toed the road on the Hamburg Marathon in a ultimate try and hit the qualifying normal for the Paris 2024 Olympics. It simply wasn’t her day: “Belly cramps from the very starting & quads went to shit @ 30k,” Wodak posted on X post-race. Wodak completed twelfth, in 2:30:24, lacking the ladies’s Olympic normal of two:26:50 by a number of minutes.
Sadly not my day on the market:( Belly cramps from the very starting & quads went to shit @ 30k. However we by no means give up- proud that I completed. Gutted the Olympic dream is over. https://t.co/F67AWksIeQ
— Natasha Wodak (@tasha_wodak) April 28, 2024
The Hamburg Marathon was the finale in a season of onerous effort by Wodak geared towards Paris. After falling in need of the Olympic normal on the Houston Marathon in January, Wodak, 42, shortly launched into one other marathon construct. Wodak runs much less mileage than another elite athletes, and consists of quite a lot of cross-training in her construct, which gives an cardio hit whereas minimizing the danger of harm. Her profession has had some outstanding successes: Wodak is the nationwide report holder within the marathon, and completed thirteenth in her first Olympic marathon in Tokyo.
Wodak’s preparation for Hamburg went effectively, and within the days main as much as the race she reported that she felt rather more prepared than in Houston. “Trying again at not simply the final 12 weeks—however the final 12 months of onerous, constant work leaves me feeling assured & prepared,” she wrote on Instagram. “I actually have loved the method.”
Canada to this point has three marathoners slated to go to the Olympics in August—Cam Levins and Malindi Elmore, who each acquired early nominations from Athletics Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee, and Rory Linkletter, who ran 2:08:01 on the Seville Marathon to qualify. Fellow Canadians Ben Preisner, Leslie Sexton and Dayna Pidhoresky additionally raced Hamburg within the hopes of hitting the usual, and all had been DNFs.
Regardless of failing to satisfy the usual in Hamburg, Wodak was proud that she by no means misplaced hope. “However we by no means hand over— proud that I completed,” she wrote on X. “Gutted the Olympic dream is over.”
