SASKATOON, Saskatchewan – When Ivan Heshko’s grandfather made arrangements to emigrate to Canada in the 1930s, his grandmother emphatically refused to go and destroyed the documents that had been prepared for the purpose. Ever since, members of the Heshko family dreamed of seeing Canada.
Heshko, a three-time Olympian and former world champion in the 1,500 meters, finally had his dream come true when he and his fellow runners Sergii Vashurin and Ruslan Kramariuk were invited to participate in the Saskatchewan Marathon. The runners, all from the Chernivtsi area of Ukraine, first spent a week in Toronto with Heshko’s relatives to acclimatize to the time change.
In Saskatoon on May 31, all won gold in their respective events; Vashurin in the full marathon with a time of 2:37:55; Kramariuk, in the half-marathon, 1:15:05; and Heshko, 10 kilometers, 33:03. About 2,000 runners participated in the events.
It was the first time in Canada for all three, and Saskatchewan was an ideal place for them to visit given its strong Ukrainian heritage. Roughly half of the organizers and fellow competitors, whom the runners met at the pre-race dinner, had some Ukrainian background, according to translator Victoria Didkovska of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Saskatoon branch.
James Funk, the defending champion in the marathon, said the appearance of the runners from Ukraine increased the quality of competition at the Saskatchewan Marathon.
The cities of Saskatoon and Chernivtsi have been twinned since the 1980s. The runners visited Mayor Don Atchison at Saskatoon City Hall and delivered a letter of greetings from Chernivtsi Mayor Oleksii Kaspruk.
Members of the Saskatoon UCC participated in touring the Ukrainians around the city and generally making them feel welcome. Activities included a luncheon at the UCC Saskatchewan Provincial Council office, visits to the Bishop Filevich Ukrainian Bilingual School, the Ukrainian Museum of Canada and the Western Development Museum, a barbeque dinner at a local home and even a fly-over of Saskatoon in a private airplane.
Vashurin, Kramariuk and Heshko hope to return next year to continue to help build Saskatchewan’s marathon event. “They will gladly come back,” Ms. Didkovska relayed.