The fourth and final day of athletics competition at the Canada Games was perhaps the most riveting one of the week. A British Columbian athlete crushed a longstanding long jump record, an accomplished varsity athlete from Alberta pulled off the rare 800-1500m double, and a pair of sprinters from Quebec and Ontario completed a staggering triple crown. Here are the few stories that characterized Day 4 at Canada Games Park.
 

THE TOP FIVE – DAY 4

1- AUDREY LEDUC COMPLETES RARE SPRINTING TRIFECTA

Setting new Canada Games records in the 100m and 4x100m races earlier this week apparently did little to tire out Audrey Leduc. The 23-year-old sprinter from Team Quebec came back to the track today and won the 200m final in a personal best time of 23.70. Leduc edged out 400m champion Grace Konrad of Alberta on her way to victory by 0.15 seconds. In doing so, she became the only woman to win three gold medals in the entire athletics competition. And if that wasn’t enough, she doubled back to finish fifth in a strong long jump field with a strong best of 6.10m.

2- WITH ADJIBI HURT, TEAMMATE ROTH SECURES 200M TITLE FOR ONTARIO AND WINS THIRD GOLD MEDAL

Eliezer Adjibi seemed to be the clear favourite to win the men’s 200m crown after the preliminary round: his time of 21.71 was the fastest across all heats, and he had achieved it despite letting up at the line. But the 100m champion eventually succumbed to a lingering injury, leaving the fight for gold wide open. His teammate Michael Roth, with a seed time of 21.91, was at best a dark horse to win the race. But the 20-year-old, fresh off a victory in the 400m final and in the 4x100m, brought his A-Game on Saturday and won handily in a near-personal-best time of 21.20. He and Leduc became the only triple-gold medalists in athletics at the games.

3- LAWRENCE BREAKS HEPTATHLON RECORD

The women’s heptathlon featured a battle between varsity circuit rivals Hannah Blair and Dalyssa Huggins, both of Ontario, and Maddison Lawrence of Manitoba. Lawrence, the second place finisher at the 2022 Bell Canadian Track and Field Championships, showed the greatest form throughout the weekend. The 23-year-old not only bested her closest competitors, she broke a 33-year-old Canada Games record. Aided by her competition victories in the 100m hurdles, the long jump, the 200m and the high jump, she achieved a total score of 5655 points, besting the previous mark held by Catherine Bond of Ontario by a considerable 222 points.

4- SHADD-CERES HANDILY BEATS COVETED LONG JUMP RECORD

The women’s long jump was considered to be one of the marquee events of the meet, and, with six women leaping over six metres, it did not disappoint. In the end, 16-year-old Trinity Shadd-Ceres’s star shone the brightest, as the Ontarian athlete leaped to a Canada Games record of 6.40m, besting Tracy Dulmage of Saskatchewan’s previous mark of 6.25m, set nearly 30 years ago. Shadd-Ceres’ monstrous jump placed her 14cm ahead of Lawrence, the eventual heptathlon champion.

5- LUTZ COMPLETES GRUELLING MID-DISTANCE DOUBLE

University of Calgary star Eric Lutz came into the Games expected to contend for medals, and the U SPORTS champion met every expectation. It showed little that the 24-year-old Albertan lined up on the 800m start line with a 1500m victory still in the legs, as he gapped his closest competitors with 300m to go and charged to the finish line. His time of 1:49.33 was good enough to fend off a pair of Team Quebec runners, Laurent-Olivier Dumont and Zakary Mama-Yari, and capture his second gold medal of the weekend.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Alex Cyr

Manager, Digital Communications – Athletics Canada

alex.cyr@athletics.ca

902-598-8598