Some businesses allowed their employees to leave early in order to avoid traffic snarls due to road closures for the marathon. A steady stream of buses ferried athletes, coaches, media people and spectators to Commonwealth stadium and helped to reduce transportation headaches.
| Opening Ceremonies | |
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I arrived at the stadium around 19:00. The opening ceremonies had already started and a crowd of people had gathered at Stadium Road where the marathoners would enter the stadium grounds. This is also where the Opening Ceromony performers make their way onto and off the field. After their segment, one of the performers gestured towards me while speaking to his friend as I was composing a photo of his group. I realized he was pointing past me so I turned around and I saw several shimmering lights hovering near the horizon. The lights slowly grew larger and larger until I recognized the Snowbirds, aerial acrobatic team. |
| Men's Marathon | Day 1 - Official Results |
 332 Gezahegne Abera of Ethiopa ETH  672 Simon Biwott of Kenya KEN  581 Stefano Baldini of Italy ITA | |
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1st: 332 Gezahegne Abera ETH (right) trails 2nd: 672 Simon Biwott KEN (left) into the stadium. Abera overtakes Biwott with a few hundred metres remaining winning by ONE second. |
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I had a good vantage point for viewing and taking photos of the athletes but we had to keep moving back towards the curb to make room. 8th: 650 Yoshiteru Morishita of Japan JPN (left) 12th: 633 Atsushi Fujita JPN (right) |
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The crowd was very supportive of the marathoners, applauding and cheering each of them. After a number of runners had gone by, a man across from me wondered out loud, "Where are the Canadians?" 42nd: 156 Steve Bohan of Toronto, ON, CAN (left) 46th: 168 Bruce Deacon of Victoria, BC, CAN (right) |
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I was standing on the inner curve which made it difficult to see who was approaching so I decided to move further from the stadium where it was less crowded. 58th: 76 Jean-Paul Niyonsaba of Burundi BDI (left) 59th: 100 Djuro Kodzo of Bosnia & Herzegovina BIH (right) 60th: 582 Roberto Barbi ITA (middle) |
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We all stayed to the end. Our cheers for the final runners were echoed loudly when they entered the stadium. Fraser was the final finisher. 65th: 187 Oliver Utting of Calgary, AB, CAN (left) 72nd: 175 Christian Marmen of Matapedia, QC, CAN (not shown) 73rd: 154 Fraser Bertram Of Lennoxville, QC, CAN (right) Canada ranks 10th in the Marathon World Cup after Ethiopia, Japan, Italy, France, Spain, Mexico, Ukraine, Australia, United States of America. |
