Written by Cleve Deensaw and published January 23, 2008 in the Vancouver Sun.

VICTORIA — The IAAF, the world governing body of track and field, on Tuesday assured Canada instant credibility in the men’s marathon for the 2008 Beijing Olympics by clearing Jon Brown of Victoria to run for his adopted country.

Brown is world class, having placed fourth in both the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympic marathons for his native Britain.

“I got the e-mail this morning. The paper work is complete. It’s all rubber-stamped and everything is okayed,” Brown said.

“Now I just have to qualify. That’s easier said than done. I have to run the 2:12 [Canadian Olympic Committee qualifying standard]. It’s pretty straight forward, really.”

No native-born Canadian has run a marathon faster than Brown, whose personal-best time of 2:09:31 from the 2005 London Marathon is superior to the Canadian record of 2:10:08 held by Jerome Drayton since 1975.

Brown has run a sub-2:11 marathon during the Beijing qualifying period, but doesn’t know if can be officially recognized as a time applicable to Canada.

“I don’t know if it’s valid or not, according to Athletics Canada, because I was not affiliated with Athletics Canada at the time I ran it,” Brown said. “I don’t know if it’s an allowable time, as far as Canada is concerned.”

Brown will run the Tokyo marathon next month. If he cracks 2:12 there, he will not run a marathon until the Olympics in Beijing.

“If it doesn’t go according to plan in Tokyo, then I will run the Ottawa marathon at the end of May [to try to meet the qualifying standard],” said Brown.

Brown became a dual British-Canadian citizen in 2005. He moved to Canada in 1996 and lived for five years in Vancouver before relocating to Victoria in 2001, a running-mad city he first fell in love with while representing England during the 1994 Commonwealth Games.