Canadian athletes shine on the track in California and Kenya

With beneath 10 weeks to go till the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore., lots of Canada’s prime athletes competed at meets in California and Kenya this weekend. This version of the weekend recap is highlighted by a number of athletes returning to their private greatest type early within the season and two feminine 800m runners dipping beneath the two-minute barrier.

On the Kip Keino Traditional in Nairobi, Kenya, Canada’s Aaron Brown received his first 200m race of the season in a barely wind-aided time of 20.05 seconds (+2.1 m/s). Brown’s time was only some milliseconds off his 2021 better of 19.99 seconds, which he ran on the Tokyo Olympics. Brown’s subsequent 200m race is on Friday, Could 13 on the Doha Diamond League, the place he’ll go up towards the likes of 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley and Olympic 200m bronze medallist Noah Lyles.

What a battle! 🙌

Aaron Brown takes first place within the 200m, with a time of 20.05 on the @WorldAthletics Continental Tour in Nairobi 🇰🇪 pic.twitter.com/PxT8wcmDjT

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) May 7, 2022

Many Canadian distance runners made the journey all the way down to San Juan Capistrano, Calif., for the Sound Working Invite. Canadian 800m Olympians Lindsey Butterworth and Madeleine Kelly kicked off the listing of stellar Canadian performances in Cali, as each ran sub-two within the 800m. After opening the season in 2:00.40, Butterworth continued to impress over two laps, operating her second-fastest time ever over the space, in 1:59.59. In the identical race, Kelly ran a private greatest time of 1:59.83 to develop into solely the tenth Canadian girl to interrupt the two-minute barrier. These instances by Butterworth and Kelly are glorious contemplating it’s nonetheless early within the out of doors season.

Within the males’s 5,000m, Olympic 1,500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen stole the present, opening up his 2022 season with a win in 13:02. Canada’s Charles Philibert-Thiboutot was seventh, with a private greatest time of 13:12.78, setting a brand new Quebec document within the 5,000m and reaching the world championship 5,000m customary of 13:13.50. Since lacking qualification for the Tokyo Olympics final yr, Philibert-Thiboutot has now achieved the 2022 WC standard in the 1,500m and 5,000m and set a Canadian 5K road record (13:35).

One other world championship customary was hit within the girls’s 1,500m, as Gabriela DeBues-Stafford clocked 4:03.20 (one second beneath the usual of 4:04.20) to win the 1,500m in her first race since leaving Bowerman Track Club final month. DeBues-Stafford seems to comply with up her record-setting 2022 indoor season with some robust out of doors performances forward of World Championships in July.