© Copyright - 2013 - Athletics Illustrated
On Sunday, January 13th, 31-year-old Natasha Fraser of Port Moody, BC turned a few heads when she crossed the finish line sixth overall (and first woman) at the Prairie Inn Harrier’s Pioneer 8k road race. She smashed the old course record, finishing in 25 minutes and 28 seconds, the record was previously held by Olympian Debbie Scott (Bowker), which was 26:08, set in 1986. Fraser’s time represents a 40 second improvement over the previous 27-year old record.
Fraser has been winning her share of races over the past three years, but what got everyone’s attention wasn’t just the finish time, but also the margin of victory. She finished nearly three minutes ahead of the second place female runner, Sabrina Wilkie who crossed the line in 28:15. The race for second was a little more competitive as Wilkie was followed in by Catrin Jones in 28:26, Anne-Marie Madden 28:38, Lucy Smith 28:45 and Erin Burrett 28:46.