The indoor monitor season is in full swing, and Canada’s Ben Flanagan and Marco Arop are again in motion this weekend on the New Stability Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, after sensational performances to open the 2024 season final weekend. Each males have their eyes on the Canadian indoor document e book.
Flanagan, contemporary off reaching his first profession Olympic normal within the males’s 5,000m, joined this week’s episode of Canadian Operating’s The Shakeout Podcast with host David Stol. On the podcast, Flanagan introduced he can be racing once more at Sunday’s New Stability Indoor Grand Prix within the males’s 3,000m, and that he has a Canadian document time on his thoughts.
“I would like to take [Kieran] Lumb’s Canadian document within the indoor 3,000m of seven:38.39 […] That’s the purpose for Sunday,” mentioned Flanagan. “Simply because I do know he’ll take it again from me sooner or later.”
Flanagan has had some earlier luck at this NB Grand Prix monitor. Final 12 months, he ran his 3,000m private greatest of seven:43.49 to position fifth in a world-class discipline. Lumb set the Canadian indoor 3,000m document in December 2023. He’s the one Canadian athlete to run below 7:40.
Ben Flanagan recaps 5,000m Olympic qualification at Boston meet
Becoming a member of Flanagan within the males’s 3,000m on the New Stability Grand Prix is Quebec’s Charles Philibert-Thiboutot, who’s coming off a second-place end and private greatest of three:53.41 over one mile on the John Terrier Basic final weekend in Boston.
Flanagan, who simply turned 29, mentioned he’s excited to see numerous Canadian distance runners at main monitor occasions just like the NB Grand Prix—a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold occasion. “It’s been unimaginable to see Arop’s rise to changing into the 800m world champion,” mentioned Flanagan. “I met him for the primary time in Budapest. He’s tremendous soft-spoken and real. He actually impressed me.”
On the 2023 World Championships, Arop turned the primary Canadian 800m runner to win world championship gold. In Paris, he’ll look to succeed in uncharted territory as soon as once more, changing into the primary runner in Canadian historical past to win gold within the 800m self-discipline.
“To see him pull off what he did in Budapest, it was unimaginable—I feel he’s nonetheless simply getting higher,” mentioned Flanagan.
Arop is coming off a nationwide document of 1:45.51 over 800m indoors in Arkansas, enhancing his earlier Canadian indoor document by practically half a second. The world 800m champion dominated the race, negative-splitting a 52-second last 400m to win by 1.5 seconds. He now has one other document on his thoughts that he hasn’t added to his spectacular resume but—the Canadian 1,000m document.
The 25-year-old will toe the road towards the reigning world indoor champion Mariano García of Spain within the males’s 1,000m. García is the Spanish nationwide document holder over 800 and 1,000m indoors and is thought for his late-race power. Regardless of not making the Spanish group for worlds final 12 months, he opened his 2024 season with a 2:17.51 for 1,000m.
The time Arop could have his eyes on is the Canadian 1,000m indoor document held by Nathan Brannen, which is 2:16.87, set in Boston 10 years in the past. For Arop to have an opportunity, he might want to come by 800m in below 1:49, which he confirmed he was able to final weekend, when he ran his new private greatest on the College of Arkansas.
Flanagan and Arop shall be two of seven Canadian athletes competing on the 2024 New Stability Grand Prix. Sisters Lucia Stafford and Gabriela DeBues-Stafford will race one another over 1,500m on the identical monitor for the primary time since 2022. Lucia is coming off two wins to kick off her season ultimately weekend’s John Terrier Basic, whereas Gabriela is returning to the skilled scene after two years of accidents and setbacks.
Canadian XC champion Kieran Lumb shall be within the males’s 1,500m, and Julie-Anne Staehli of Lucknow, Ont., is entered within the ladies’s 3,000m.
Methods to comply with?
Canadian Operating shall be stay in Boston on Sunday at The Monitor at New Stability for the 2024 New Stability Indoor Grand Prix. We shall be tweeting and posting interviews and outcomes with athletes because it occurs. In case you are searching for a livestream of the races, you are able to do so on FloTrack or the FloSports app (membership required). The occasion will begin at 4 p.m. ET and can run till 6 p.m. ET.
