Cam Levins crushes Canadian half marathon record in 1:00:18 at Vancouver First Half

It's a good bet Japanese running fans will see a different Cam Levins in three weeks.

The Canadian marathon record-holder won the First Half men's half marathon title in Vancouver on Sunday, breaking the 61-minute barrier in a men's national mark of 1:00:18, less than three months after Ben Flanagan set the record by edging Levins at the finish line in Houston.

With a light rain falling Sunday, Levins ran much of the 21.1-kilometre route on his own and won by four minutes over Lee Wesselius, Thomas Broatch and 2022 Canadian marathon champion Trevor Hofbauer.

"This is a seriously LEGIT record on a course that features hills, open spots to the ocean, and no rabbits [pacesetter] … WOW," Trent Stellingwerff, who coaches Canadian runners Natasha Wodak and Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, posted to his Twitter account.

New national record! 1:00:18 <a href="https://twitter.com/CamLevins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CamLevins</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/runvancanada?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@runvancanada</a> <a href="https://t.co/mtP0P1uEea">https://t.co/mtP0P1uEea</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/runvan?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#runvan</a> <a href="https://t.co/ci3mEpEKpU">pic.twitter.com/ci3mEpEKpU</a>

On Aug. 8, 2021, the 33-year-old Levins was one of the last finishers in the Olympic marathon in Sapporo, Japan, placing 71st in two hours 28 minutes 43 seconds after hitting the 2:11:30 automatic qualifying standard with a week to spare.

He later told The Canadian Press not eating enough leading up to races was a big part of the problem in not reaching the Olympic standard earlier.

"I really just took a lot away from the last Olympics and realized I need to be better in every way," Levins told reporters last July 17 in