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By Martin Cleary
Liz Maguire didn’t see a medal coming originally, but when it did, it was a WOW moment.
After finally reaching her first world masters outdoor athletics championship on the heels of three derailed attempts because of two injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club runner didn’t know what to expect in her only age-group race in Gothenburg, Sweden, last August.
During her final 1,500-metre race at home before heading overseas, Maguire was anything but encouraged or optimistic about facing the best women 55-59 age-group runners in the world.
“In my last race, I didn’t even finish it,” Maguire said in a phone interview about a Twilight Series training race at her club. “I was exhausted a lap and a bit into it. That wasn’t good mentally going into Sweden. I might have been tired from all my training. I don’t know what happened.
“Training was going well, but I didn’t race well to get ready for Sweden. I didn’t have the best outdoor season leading to worlds and it was a bit in my head. I was a bit nervous.”
But once she arrived on the track for her world masters championship debut, she quickly discarded the nervousness and doubt, and pushed it to the backburner, after winning her opening heat in the women’s 55 1,500 metres in a comfortable five minutes, 29.87 seconds.
Her time allowed her to qualify for the 16-runner final and placed her fourth overall in times, after the two preliminary heats.
The championship final was almost too good to be true for the multi-talented runner, although she felt she had a chance to reach the medal podium based on her qualifying time and placement.
After devising a race plan and sticking with it the entire way for a change, Maguire emerged as the silver medallist in the women’s 1,500 metres in 5:01.80. American Michelle Rohl set a strong pace and used a season-best time of 4:55.87 to earn the gold medal. Marili Munnik of South Africa was third in her best outdoor-season clocking, 5:08.24.
Ottawa Lions teammate Wendy Alexis was a double medallist in the women’s 65-69 age group, winning the 100 metres in 14.46 seconds and placing second over 200 metres in 30.81 seconds. She also ran a leg of the 4×100-metre relay to help the Canadian team finish fourth in 1:01.23.
The Lions also were represented by three other runners – Michael Conway (men’s 40-44, 20th in the 400 metres and 22nd over 800 metres), Michael Smith (men’s 55-59, 48th in 100 metres and 52nd in 200 metres) and Lawrence Willaims (men’s 50-54, 37th in 400 metres and 59th in 200 metres).
“It was my first worlds and, oh my goodness, it was so exciting,” Maguire, 57, said about winning a medal in her debut. “It’s hard to describe. Going over, I didn’t expect this. But I ran a very good time.”
If the wind wasn’t as strong as it was, Maguire figured she could have run close to five minutes even or under that age-group milestone.
“I said to my coach (Ray Elrick), I ran a smart race, not a gutsy race. The American (Rohl) was a very strong runner and I knew she would go out fast. It was a windy day, so I stayed with a (trailing) group. With just over a lap to go, I passed the South African runner.
“I didn’t think I could have caught her (Rohl), but looking back maybe I should have gone with the American. But I actually followed my race plan, which I don’t often do.”
Maguire, who works full-time as a law clerk with the Ottawa firm Soloway Wright, entered the final with more enthusiasm and positivity than she could have imagined several weeks earlier, after her disappointing Twilight prep race in Ottawa.
“The heat helped to boost my confidence. I was in the second heat and was able to see the top three runners in the first heat. The top three in each heat and the next best 10 times made the final,” she explained.
“I was able to see what the first-heat runners did and see the times of the top three. I took an easy first lap and a bit. I took the lead with more than one lap to go. I was comfortable, it wasn’t fast and I won my heat. It felt easy.”
Maguire has lived through a start-and-stop-and-start-again running career that has taken her from middle distance racing on the track to cross-country races in the fall and to marathons whenever she feels compelled to tackle that truckload of training and single-day challenge.
If all goes well, she plans to run middle-distance races at the 2025 world masters indoor athletics championships in March in Gainesville, Florida, and is contemplating the Berlin Marathon next September.
Switching to longer runs and building her weekly mileage for the marathon from the shorter and quicker training runs in middle-distance running is fine with Maguire. She enjoys training with a variety of runners.
“It makes it more interesting,” she said about training for and running different distances. “It’s not that I get bored. The training is very different and there’s a whole different mindset. I enjoy training for all the distances, except sprinting.
“I enjoy the company of all the people I train with. There’s a group of guys I train with for the marathon and a track group. It keeps me out of trouble.”
Training, racing and pushing herself to run best times keeps Maguire focused on her running.
“If I stop, I’ll never get started again,” she jokingly but seriously admitted. “It keeps me young. I’m also fairly competitive. When a race is on my radar, I’m motivated to keep training.”
At the recent Athletics Ontario Awards Banquet and Hall of Fame induction, Maguire was named a 2024 All-Ontarian for track in the masters category.
Lions sprinters Jorai Oppong-Nketiah and Zachary Jeggo were selected as the province’s top women’s and men’s U18 athletes respectively.
Read More: Mark down that name: Record-setting sprinter Jorai Oppong-Nketiah is a rising star to watch
Oppong-Nketiah was the Canadian U18 100- and 200-metre champion as well as the national U20 100-metre champion and 200-metre silver medallist. Jeggo was a four-time Canadian U18 medallist, including gold in the 400-metre hurdles. He also was the national U20 runner-up in the 400-metre hurdles and third in the 400 metres.
Alexis was one of the candidates considered for masters athlete of the year.
The Ottawa Lions also received three team banners at the banquet – Ontario overall club champion (first time since 2015), U20 provincial team champion and U18 Ontario team champion.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for 51 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
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