The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, April 28, 2016 | 38 HALTON TRANSMISSION 559 SPEERS RD., #UNIT 3 905-842-0725 www.haltontransmission.com Kevin Nagel Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Merga, Gardiner fastest at Mercedes 10K race Ebisa Merga was the fastest finisher of Sunday's eighth annual Mercedes-Benz Oakville 10K. The event attracted just under 1,100 participants to Oakville's Appleby College start line. Merga finished the 10-kilometre race in 31 minutes and 57.6 seconds, almost two minutes ahead of runner-up Tsegaye Dissasa of Toronto. Third place went to Oakville's Eric Labelle, who finished second in last year's race. Heather Sinclair of Toronto won the title as fastest women, finishing in 40:14, nine seconds ahead of Cambridge's Janine Beaulieu. Oakville's Monica Lau was third at 40:42. Following are the age group winners at the 2016 event: Females 14-under: Olivia Gardiner, Oakville, 48:26.5 15-19: Bridget Ball, Oakville, 43:19.4 20-29: Heather Sinclair, Toronto, 40:14 30-39: Janine Beaulieu, Cambridge, 40:25.7 40-49: Dina Eino, Mississauga, 44:04.8 50-59: Teresa Lohonyai, Oakville, 48:52.2 60-69: Margaret Menzel, Toronto, 43:10.2 Males 14-U: Soren Zamuner, Oakville, 41:21.4 15-19: Brendan Saunders, Oakville, 36:22.2 20-29: Ebisa Merga, unknown residence, 31:57.6 30-39: Mat Reid, Burlington, 37:44.3 40-49: Tsegaye Dissasa, Toronto, 33:55.0 50-59: J.P . Korsmit, St. Catharines, 40:35.1 60-69: Bernie Waytiuk, Oakville, 45:36.7 70-plus: Roger Fisher, Oakville, 51:31.8 More than 1,000 participants in last Sunday's eighth annual Mercedes-Benz Oakville 10K (inset) start the race. At the finish line 31 minutes and 58 seconds later, Ebisa Merga crosses the finish line as the top male. Heather Sinclair of Toronto was the fastest female (40:14) . | photos by Michael Ivanin ­ special to Burlington Post Pinball Clemons named to Canadian Sports Hall of Fame Oakville resident Mike (Pinball) Clemons will be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in November. He and five other athletes, as well as Burlington's Frank Hayden, chosen as a builder, will be inducted Nov. 1. Clemons, 51, is the Canadian Football League's all-time leader in combined yards despite his fivefoot-seven size. He played 12 years for the Toronto Argonauts before retiring in 2000 with three Grey Cup rings. Clemons left as the CFL's alltime leader in combined yards (25,438). He also won another Grey Cup Pinball Clemons in 2004, becoming the first black coach to accomplish the feat during a 68-55-1 (.552) stint as the Argos' head coach. Other athletes joining Clemons at the induction ceremonies will be hockey hall-of-famer Bryan Trottier, curler Colleen Jones, Paralympian Stephanie Dixon, cross-country skier/kayaker Sue Holloway and speedskater Annie Perreault. Hinchcliffe finishes sixth at IndyCar race in Alabama Oakville's James Hinchcliffe turned in his best result of the season with a sixth-place finish while Simon Pagenaud won his second straight Verizon IndyCar series race on Sunday. Pagenaud held off Graham Rahal and 2015 winner Josef Newgarden to capture the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on a hot afternoon at the Barber Motorsports Park. On a day when tires played a huge role, another special occurrence happened at Birmingham: the entire field ran 90 laps (207 miles) without a yellow caution flag. But the story of the race was most probably Juan Pablo Montoya, the 40-year-old veteran who started 21st and dead last and finished fifth, climbing 16 places. Hinchcliffe, who fought Montoya tooth and nail for most of the second half of the race, was admittedly amazed by the Colombian driver. "He must have had an amazing stint in there somewhere," he said. Hinchcliffe said tire selection was crucial in the mid-80s (F) weather. "The challenge for both drivers and their engineers was to get the settings right for the tires," he said. The No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports entry began the race on blacks and moved up with a stunning 5.8-second first pit stop to go to sticky red Firestone tires early in the race. That moved Hinchcliffe to sixth from his eighth-place starting grid position and he spent most of the race battling for position near the front. He was there at race's end, matching his best Barber Motorsports Park result from 2012. "It was a solid day. We were able to move up a couple of spots, which was obviously good," Hinchcliffe said. "I think we struggled a little bit more than others with tire degradation and so that forced us to stop early a couple of times, which means we were saving a bit of fuel on those runs. All in all, the No. 5 Arrow Electronics car was really quick, maybe just a little rough on tires, but it's good that two weekends in a row we've come out with strong finishes and hopefully we can keep this momentum going through the month of May." The 2.38-mile permanent road course has 17 flowing turns and features 80 feet of elevation change that challenge drivers and engineers. A 45-foot-wide racing ribbon also makes it imperative for patience while setting up overtaking opportunities. The next race on the Verizon IndyCar schedule is the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis on Saturday, May 14. James Hinchcliffe, seen here during qualifications last Saturday for Sunday's IndyCar race, finished sixth at the Grand Prix of Alabama. | Patagonia Visual Solutions