Rory Linkletter takes down 23-year-old Canadian men's half-marathon record

New year, new coach, new half-marathon personal best and a Canadian record for Rory Linkletter.

The Calgary-born runner crossed the finish line eighth in 61 minutes eight seconds on a chilly Sunday morning in Houston to eclipse Jeff Schiebler's 61:28 performance over 21.1 kilometres from Jan. 15, 1999 in Tokyo.

"Beyond stoked," the 25-year-old Linkletter wrote to his Twitter account on the heels of his 2:12:52 PB in the California International Marathon on Dec. 5 in Sacramento.

Subject to verification, Linkletter also surpassed the 15 km and 20 km records (held by Paul Williams and Cam Levins, respectively) en route with his 43:23 and 58:05 splits, according to Athletics Canada records manager Tim Berrett.

Linkletter's previous half-marathon PB of 1:01:44 was also achieved in Houston on Jan. 19, 2020. He also placed ninth later in October of that year in the Michigan Pro Half Marathon (1:02:37).

"I had no doubt that I was capable of the record, it was just a matter of how will the race play out? Will my body hold up? And will it be the type of day for a record?" Linkletter told Lori Ewing of The Canadian Press.

"Records usually require a nice day, good pacing, good racing so I was hopeful, but I also understood that there was a lot of things that had to happen for it to line up."

Milkesa Tolosa of Ethiopia won in 1:00.24, followed by Kenya's John Korir (1:00:27) and Wilfred Kimitei of Great Britain (1:00:44).

Ben Flanagan of Kitchener, Ont., who recently departed Reebok Boston Track Club after three-plus years for On Running, also set a 1:01:38 PB in Sunday's race for a 12th-place finish among 5,174 men's participants.

WATCH | Flanagan wins 10K road race debut last fall:

In December, HOKA released Linkletter from his contract and he left the Northern Arizona (NAZ) Elite track club after joining in 2019.

"I felt like there was a disconnect between the training I was putting in and the results … it was just this succession of underwhelming performances," he told letsrun.com in December.

American Scott Fauble, who also left NAZ Elite in December, worked together with Linkletter on Sunday.

"He knew I was going for the record," Linkletter told CP, "and he helped me out, talked me through it, it was really, really nice to have him, because with a mile [1.6 km] to go, he was saying 'Alright, you gotta push here.'"