Canadian record holder Cam Levins drops out of NYC Marathon debut before 20 km mark

In his first New York City Marathon, Canadian record holder Cam Levins left the course in Brooklyn before the halfway mark of Sunday's 42.2-kilometre race for an undisclosed reason.

"I haven't heard yet why," his coach Jim Finlayson, who was watching Levins run in New York, told CBC Sports.

Levins, who set the men's North American record of two hours five minutes 36 on March 5 in the Tokyo Marathon, looked relaxed shortly before dropping out of the men's race, contested under a mostly sunny sky, little wind and a temperature of 8 C.

Levins reached 5K with the lead group in 15:29, or a 2:10 pace. He went through 10K in 30:39 before separating from the front group of five at 13K and settled into seventh spot and within reach of his stated goal of a top-three finish.

The 34-year-old, from Black Creek, B.C., chose to race the hilly New York course in preparation for a third Olympics next summer in Paris, where where the near-loop course will vary in elevation from a low point of 27 metres and high point of 183, gaining 438m in elevation and descending 436m to the finish.

Levins, the only elite Canadian runner competing in New York, had experience racing a portion of the marathon course, having competed in the 5th Avenue Mile in 2012 and the 2019 NYC Half Marathon.

Without pacers in New York, improving his North American record was not a priority on Sunday, Levins told CBC Sports this week.

He was fourth in the men's marathon at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and fifth in Tokyo this year.

No Canadian has won in the 52-year history of the New York City Marathon.