Flanagan obliterates Canadian 5K mark, dominates Boston road race with Very Nice teammates

Ben Flanagan ran to his second Canadian record in six months in Saturday's Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) 5K, reaching the finish in 13 minutes 26 seconds for second place, nine seconds ahead of Charles Philibert-Thiboutot's winning time and national mark from last year's race.

Last October, Flanagan took 38 seconds off his previous best in the half marathon, posting a then-Canadian record of one hour one minute in Valencia. It now belongs to Cam Levins, who clocked 1:00:18 in in Vancouver in February on his way to setting a 2:05:36 North American mark three weeks later in the Tokyo Marathon.

The 28-year-old Flanagan was confident entering Saturday's road race on a cloudy, cool morning with only a slight wind, two days before the 127th Boston Marathon.

"The [record] is definitely a big goal of mine," the Kitchener, Ont., native and 2024 Olympic hopeful told CBC Sports earlier this week. Flanagan ran 13:38 last Sept. 11 at the Medavie Canadian 5K championships in Moncton, N.B.

"I'm excited to go for it again," he said, "and this is a race [in Boston] where I've got no doubt it'll be set up well enough with the [calibre] of athletes attending."

BEN FLANAGAN NEW