It was a yr to recollect for Canadian athletics. Group Canada gained 4 gold medals on the 2023 World Athletics Championships, marking the second-highest tally behind Group USA. Moreover, Canadian monitor witnessed males’s marathon report being lowered for the second consecutive yr, together with different sensational performances on highway, monitor and trails.
There have been quite a few excellent performances by Canadian athletes, making it a problem to slim down the record. Nonetheless, we have now managed to focus on the highest 10 Canadian performances of 2023:
For the primary time in class historical past, the UBC Thunderbirds gained each the lads’s and girls’s college nationwide titles. UBC positioned 5 ladies within the prime 15 to win their first ladies’s U Sports activities XC title in class historical past, led by Katie Newlove, who completed first general. UBC males positioned three of their runners within the prime 10, securing their first males’s U Sports activities XC title since 1993, edging out Laval Rouge et Or by eight factors.
In April, the lads’s Canadian 5K report was shattered on the B.A.A. 5K in Boston for the second yr in a row. Ben Flanagan of Kitchener, Ont., positioned second within the race and broke the earlier Canadian report by ten seconds in 13:26.
This 5K report was the third Canadian highway report Flanagan broke in his profession. He’s presently the report holder over the highway 5K and 10K.
Canada’s Malindi Elmore nearly reclaimed her nationwide report (set by Natasha Wodak on this course a yr in the past), lacking it by solely 18 seconds. Elmore ran an 80-second private finest for two:23:30, which is nicely below the Olympic normal of two:26:50 for Paris 2024. Elmore, who’s 43, completed in thirteenth place and gained the ladies’s masters division. Elmore’s time will make her eligible for choice for the Canadian marathon crew, which might be her third profession Olympic Video games, 20 years after she made her first crew in Athens 2004.
Lucia Stafford kicked off her 2023 season with a bang, setting a Canadian report for 1,000m indoors in January. Her time of two:33.75 not solely broke the earlier Canadian report of two:37.04, however additionally it is the quickest by any North American girl in historical past. This was her first Canadian senior nationwide report. Solely two ladies within the final 15 years have run quicker than Stafford’s mark indoors—Olympic silver medallist Laura Muir and 1,500m world report holder Genzebe Dibaba.
In solely her second NCAA monitor season on the College of Michigan, Savannah Sutherland of Borden, Sask. continues to interrupt information. On the 2023 NCAA Monitor and Subject Championships in June, the 19-year-old sprinter not solely reached the ultimate, however shocked the sector by working a private better of 54.45 seconds to win her first NCAA championship. Sutherland went on to characterize Canada on the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, the place she reached the semi-final in her senior Group Canada debut.
Historical past was made on the 2023 Diamond League Last in September as Andre De Grasse grew to become the primary Canadian sprinter to win a Diamond League remaining trophy, clocking a season’s finest 19.76 seconds within the males’s 200m. The race marked his the fourth-fastest 200m time of his profession, and his quickest time since 2021. De Grasse stated it was a “optimistic step ahead” as he appears forward to 2024 with the intention of defending his Olympic 200m title.
In October, Ukrainian-Canadian ultrarunner Ihor Verys was certainly one of two males who broke the yard extremely world report at Huge’s Yard Extremely World Championship in Bell Buckle, Tenn. Verys battled American Harvey Lewis for 107 yards (6.706-km hourly loops) however fell one yard shy of the win. Lewis recorded 724.248 kilometres throughout 5 days, whereas Verys recorded a mark over 717 km. Lewis shattered the earlier yard extremely world report by greater than 40 km.
Pierce LePage and Damian Warner claimed gold and silver within the males’s decathlon on a historic four-medal evening for Group Canada on the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. The Whitby, Ont. native completed with a world-leading 8,909 factors to win his first world title, upgrading his silver from final yr’s world championships in Eugene. LePage grew to become the primary Canadian to win a world title within the occasion.
On the 2023 Tokyo Marathon in March, Cam Levins solidified himself because the quickest marathoner in North American historical past on the 2023 Tokyo Marathon, inserting fifth in 2:05:36 to shatter his earlier Canadian report of two:07:09. He additionally broke the long-standing North American report of two:05:38.
Levins now holds the the three quickest marathon performances in Canadian historical past, starting from 2:09:25 (Toronto 2018) to his new report of two:05:36. His mark additionally certified him for the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games, the place he’ll look to steer Group Canada to the rostrum within the males’s marathon.
In 2023, Edmonton’s Marco Arop emerged as a shining star in middle-distance working. The 24-year-old made historical past by turning into the primary Canadian middle-distance athlete to be topped world champion within the males’s 800m, contributing to Canada’s spectacular tally of 4 gold medals on the 2023 World Championships.
Arop placed on an unbelievable efficiency within the remaining, strategically positioning himself on the again in the course of the first 400m. Unleashing a decisive transfer on the ultimate lap, surging into lane three to grab the lead and lift his arms in triumph as he crossed the end line in 1:44.24. Arop accomplished the ultimate 400m in a exceptional 50.9 seconds. A month later, on the Diamond League Last, he set a brand new Canadian 800m report of 1:42.85, turning into the primary Canadian male to run below 1:43.
