Seven months from next year Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon, organizers are already thinking about the one after that, They have set a goal of 10,000 runners for 2017, when Ottawa will be the focal point of celebrations for Canada’s 150th anniversary.

It’s an ambitious target compared to this past year’s 5,800 entries and quantum leaps past the field of 146 in the first Ottawa Marathon in 1975, but the effort received a shot in the arm with Thursday’s announcement that the world governing body for road racing had granted it Gold Label status.

“We don’t hand out Gold Label to just any old event. This will be the fifth in North America, with Boston, Chicago, New York, Toronto and Ottawa,” said Abby Hoffman, a former runner who was Canada’s flag bearer for the 1976 Olympics and who is now on the International Association of Athletics Federations council. “That basically tells you that’s the cream of the crop of major marathons in North America. That’s the bottom line, and it’s on a par with the other big marathon races in London, Berlin and so on.”

Only Ottawa and Lisbon have two IAAF Gold Label races in one weekend. In Lisbon it’s the half-marathon, while the Ottawa 10K attained gold status in 2014.

“I believe that it’s going to reflect very positive on us and the city as an event (world-class runners) will want to go to because it carries a certain high standard,” said John Halvorsen, Run Ottawa president and race director for Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend. “And Gold Label races that are out there to do are not just elite races. They are typically large, mass-participation races of high calibre.”

The Gold Label signifies an event has met criteria for the calibre of elite competitors, execution of the race and media coverage. There must also be more anti-doping tests, which for Ottawa Race Weekend are conducted by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.

Elite athlete co-ordinator Manny Rodrigues, who signs world-class runners for the marathon and 10K, said Gold Label status will ease his task for next year’s race weekend May 28-29.

“A lot of my recruiting will go on in January-February,” Rodrigues said. “Having this (designation) under our belt certainly helps. It can be capitalized on.”

Before presenting a certificate signed by IAAF president Sebastien Coe to Halvorsen at City Hall, Hoffman said she lived a block from the Rideau Canal. “So I can see every spring that this is a fantastic event. But, if you’re in Seattle or Vancouver or Moncton or wherever and you’re thinking about what event that you would like to enter, I think our hope is that, through the Gold Label designation, you know this is going to be a really high-calibre event.

“If you come to Ottawa and you enter this race weekend, you’re going to have a lot of fun, you’re going to have a great experience and you’re going to see top-level athletes.”

Race organizers also released an economic impact study concluding that 38,220 out-of-town participants and spectators spent $15.1 million in the capital during 2015 race weekend.

gholder@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/HolderGord