De Grasse, who’s recovering from COVID-19, upstart women’s throwers among 10 to watch

Canadian dash star Andre De Grasse has climbed the medal podium in each one in every of his particular person Olympic and world championship races, however the 27-year-old from Markham, Ont., faces one in every of his stiffest challenges in Eugene, Ore. On the different finish of the spectrum, Sarah Mitton (shot put) and Camryn Rogers (hammer throw) might turn into Canada’s first girls to win world medals of their occasions.

Canada has 59 athletes, who’ve gained 15 Olympic medals, on the world monitor and subject championships which open Friday within the metropolis generally known as “TrackTown USA.” The group’s aim is to high the six medals gained on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Canada got here house with 5 from the 2019 worlds in Doha, Qatar, and none in 2017 in London when a nasty norovirus ripped by the group.

Listed here are 10 athletes to observe:

Andre De Grasse (100, 200, 4×100-metre relay): De Grasse is a big-game participant, producing podium ends in all seven of his 100 and 200 races over two Olympics and two world championships. However he was slowed by a foot harm within the early season earlier than lastly rounding into kind in early June, racing 10.05 to win in Oslo. Days later he contracted COVID-19 and hasn’t raced since.

De Grasse is one in every of Canada’s first athletes out of the gate, within the 100-metre heats on Friday. Individuals Fred Kerley and Trayvon Bromell, who ran a scorching 9.76 and 9.81 respectively on the U.S. trials on the identical Hayward Area monitor are the favourites. 

De Grasse stated whether or not he has the energy for the 200, through which he is the reigning Olympic champ, might be a “game-time determination.” American Noah Lyles has been gunning to reclaim world gold since his third place in Tokyo.

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Sarah Mitton (shot put): The 26-year-old from Brooklyn, N.S., unleashed a 20.33-metre throw on the Canadian championships, obliterating the nationwide report she’d set solely a month earlier. It was the world’s longest throw of the season, however held up for under a day as American Chase Ealey threw 20.51 on the U.S. trials a day later. China’s Tune Jiayuan since took over the No. 2 spot with 20.38, dropping Mitton to 3rd. 

After throwing 18.89 final season, Mitton has soared up the standings, barely pausing in 19-metre territory. A medal could be Canada’s first in girls’s shot put. Dylan Armstrong gained world silver and bronze on the boys’s facet.

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Moh Ahmed (5,000, 10,000): The 31-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., is coming off a silver-medal efficiency within the 5,000 on the Tokyo Olympics. Whereas he withdrew from the nationwide championships final month with a minor harm, he confirmed early-season pace, breaking his personal Canadian report within the 10,000 in March. 

His 5,000 time is sixth quickest on this planet, however the distance is stacked, that includes three Tokyo champions: Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda (5,000), Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway (1,500), and Selemon Barega of Ethiopia (10,000). 

Ahmed, who was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, gained world bronze within the 5,000 in 2019.

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Marco Arop (800): The 23-year-old from Edmonton has the third quickest time this season, the one minute 43.61 seconds he ran simply over per week in the past in Edmonton. He is eager to make up for his heartbreak on the Tokyo Olympics. After main wire-to-wire to win his warmth, he light badly in his semi and did not advance to the ultimate. 

Arop has turn into some of the constant medallists on the single-round Diamond League circuit, profitable in Birmingham, England this season. He is studying to tempo himself by the gruelling three rounds required on the Olympics world championships.

Arop, who’s the reigning Pan American Video games champ, and his household — he has 5 brothers — fled Khartoum, Sudan when he was two.  

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Camryn Rogers (hammer throw): The 23-year-old from Richmond, B.C., grew to become the primary Canadian girl to compete in an Olympic hammer throw last, when she completed fifth in Tokyo. She was the youngest athlete within the subject.

Now she hopes to do one higher, and turn into Canada’s first world medallist within the occasion. 

Rogers additionally has fond reminiscences of Hayward Area, profitable her third NCAA title there final month, and crushing her personal Canadian and U.S. collegiate information. Her throw of 77.67 is the fourth farthest on this planet this season. The occasion is vast open after perennial champion Anita Wlodarczyk suffered an harm chasing a thief who had damaged into her automobile. The 2019 world champion DeAnna Worth withdrew after contracting COVID-19.

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Evan Dunfee (35km race stroll): The 31-year-old from Richmond, B.C., gained bronze on the Tokyo Olympics and ’19 worlds in Doha, however it was over 50 kilometres, his most popular distance. Dunfee was passionate in lobbying World Athletics and the IOC to maintain the 50K race, however it was dropped from the Olympic program.

Devastated by that call, Dunfee stated his psychological well being suffered within the months after Tokyo. He was seventh in Muscat within the World Athletics group championships in March, however had additionally been hampered by a hamstring harm. A stable 20K race on the Canadian championships confirmed he’s returning to kind on the proper time.

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Cam Levins (marathon): The 33-year-old from Black Creek, B.C., was one in every of Canada’s finest distance runners on the monitor earlier than his spectacular debut within the marathon — a Canadian report run in 2018 in Toronto. However the years since have been up and down. He failed at three makes an attempt to run the Tokyo Olympic qualifying customary earlier than hitting it with per week to spare. 

On the Olympics, he chased the leaders within the early going, however light to 72nd place in scorching 34 C temperatures in Sapporo. 

Levins, who gained the Canadian half-marathon championships final month in 30 C warmth, posted on social media that he is searching for redemption in Eugene.

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Alysha Newman (pole vault): The 27-year-old Commonwealth Video games champ had her sights set on a medal in Tokyo, however nonetheless struggling from a concussion suffered in April when she felt within the tub, she missed in any respect three of her jumps on the Olympics. Her physician ordered a break from pole vault, and over the winter months she skilled for heptathlon occasions, finishing a heptathlon a number of weeks in the past.

The cross-training left her stronger, she stated, and she or he cleared 4.70 metres — sixth finest on this planet this season — in a meet final month in London, Ont. 

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Django Lovett (excessive leap): The 30-year-old from Surrey, B.C., has climbed the worldwide excessive leap rankings as Canada’s inheritor obvious to world and Olympic champion Derek Drouin. Lovett, who was named for the late Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, was eighth in his Olympic debut in Tokyo. The 2018 Commonwealth Video games bronze medallist gained the Birmingham Diamond League meet in Could.  

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Damian Warner (decathlon): Canada’s Tokyo champion seems to shut out the world championships with a bang. The 32-year-old from London, Ont., has gained an Olympic and world indoor title, and 6 consecutive Hypo-Assembly titles in Gotzis, Austria, a worldwide multi-events meet. However a world out of doors title has eluded him.

After sitting out the nationwide championships with a nagging knee harm, Warner stated he is feeling in high kind, and he’s the runaway favorite in Eugene. His lone decathlon this 12 months in Gotzis in Could nevertheless is not the highest rating of the season. That belongs to American Garrett Scantling (8867). However Warner’s 8797 was effectively off his 9,018 Olympic rating that made him the fourth man in historical past to interrupt the elusive 9,000-point barrier. 

The decathlon is on the ultimate two days, July 23-24.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed July 13, 2022.

Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press