MONDAY,OCTOBER21,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAIL O B11
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here is occasionally a special mo-
ment when a Toronto Maple Leaf
gives a group interview. Even if
you’ve never spent any time in these
sorts of things, you would sense it.
A bunch of people are standing
around a sweaty guy in spandex shorts
and compression socks. They are listen-
ing quietly. A lot of them have a glazed
look. A few have “scrum arm” – a muscu-
lar affliction caused by holding a micro-
phone aloft at full reach for too long.
But then the man in spandex says
something, and what had been quiet
turns instead to stillness. In the same
way a predatory animal becomes still
just before it attacks. The player notices
it, too. He’s been in Toronto a while. He
knows he’s made a terrible mistake: He
has said something interesting.
After Saturday’s win over Boston, that
player was Auston Matthews and the
thing he said – in the midst of the usual
deluge of clichés and sentences begin-
ning with the word “Obviously ...” – was
“a statement game.”
That’s what Matthews called Toronto’s
fun, meaningless victory over its NHL
schoolyard bully. “A statement game.”
KELLY,B17TheLeafsmadeastatement,although
nottheonetheythoughtthey’dmade
CATHAL
KELLY
OPINIONTORONTO
Dayna Pidhoresky stood metres beyond
the finish line at the Scotiabank Toronto
Waterfront Marathon on Sunday and
brushed aside tears. The 32-year-old in
pink running shoes and pink socks to
her knees won a women’s national
championship and secured a position
on Canada’s 2020 Olympic Team.
“I felt like I had this performance in
me for many years,” Pidhoresky said. “It
is overwhelming for it to finally come
together. I need somebody to pinch me. I
can’t believe it.”
Pidhoresky, who has had only limited
success at the marathon distance of 42.2
kilometres, ran seven minutes fasterthan she ever has before. Her time of 2
hours 29 minutes 3 seconds placed her
10th among women over all and exceed-
ed the minimum international standard
for the Tokyo Games.
A number of brilliant times were re-
corded on an equally brilliant fall day.
The chill of the morning gave way to a
mild and sunny afternoon.
Trevor Hofbauer of Calgary won the
Canadian men’s title for the second time
in three years in a personal-best 2:09:51.
His previous fastest marathon was
2:16:48 in Hamburg, Germany this
spring.
He, too, is bound for Tokyo after
bettering the men’s Olympic require-
ment of 2:11:30.
MARATHON,B14Olympicdreamssoar,recordsareset
as26,000runWaterfrontMarathon
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