Katzberg’s Golden Hour Puts Canada on The Board

When Ethan Katzberg let his first throw fly in to the Paris night air, it wasn’t guaranteed that the Olympic men’s hammer throw final was over.

But it was over.

Katzberg’s gold medal throw travelled 84.12 metres – close to the Olympic record of 84.80 metres that has stood since Seoul 1988 – and more than four metres further than any other competitor. In fact, the only other throw to break the 80 metre barrier was Katzberg’s second throw, which landed 82.28 metres away.

“Coming into it, I wanted to get a good one out in the first round and for it to be 84 metres was a really good feeling. After that I tried to go for it. Unfortunately, I could get a little more out, but I was really happy with my performance,” said the youngest Olympic hammer throw champion of all time.

In the past 12 months, Katzberg added the titles of World Champion and Pan American Games champion, before tonight’s coronation as Olympic Champion. 

“To bring the medal home for Canada, for the fans and people supporting me – there’s a huge, huge group of people from Nanaimo and Kamloops cheering me on and supporting my Olympic journey to bring home the gold. It feels very good.

Teammate Rowan Hamilton was 9th in the final, with a best throw of 76.59 metres.

“Seeing the two of us making the final together is a memory I’ll hold close to me for a long time,” Hamilton said.

Rogers Strong in Hammer Throw Qualifying

Camryn Rogers had the longest throw in women’s hammer throw qualifying Group A, launching the hammer 74.69 metres on her second attempt. That punched the defending world champion’s ticket to Tuesday’s final.

“I could not be more excited. It’s my second final and now there’s a lot of pressure, but I also think that that’s a really awesome thing and so I want to go in there and just take some really far throws and enjoy my second Olympic final experience,” Rogers said.

De Grasse’s Finals Streak Snapped

For the first time in his Olympic career, Andre De Grasse did not advance to an Olympic final. His season’s best 100 metre time of 9.98 was only good for 5th in his heat.

“It was a tough run. It was a season’s best, but I needed a little bit more juice on top of that to get to the final,” the six-time Olympic medallist said. For me now, I’ve just got to shift my focus. I can’t dwell on this too much. I have to just get ready for the 200 meters and try to go out there and defend my title.”

Moving On in the 200

Audrey Leduc continued her busy long weekend of racing by advancing directly to the women’s 200 metre semi-final, after her time of 22.88 seconds was good for 3rd in her heat.

Jacqueline Madogo will compete in the repechage round of the 200 metres. Her new personal best time of 22.78 seconds put her 4th in her heat.

“My coach gave me one quote before I went and he was like, ‘Pull the finish line in, don’t chase it’ and that’s all I kept telling myself from setting up my blocks,” Madogo said. “I got a PB. I’ve been chasing it all season and I’m glad it took an 80,000 seat stadium for me to PB this season.”

Morales Williams Makes His Move

Christopher Morales Williams impressed in his first Olympic race, making a huge push in the last 100 metres to overtake most of the men’s 400 metre field and finish 2nd in a time of 44.96. He will move on directly to Tuesday’s semi-final.

“I was a little worried if I go out too fast, maybe I won’t have it, and I played it kind of safe. On the third hundred, I kind of was like, okay, I actually feel really good. I picked it up a little bit. I saw people starting to pass me, but I wasn’t stressing about it,” Morales Williams said. “I was in myself. I dug deep. I just found it in me and I found that extra gear.”

Hurdling Into the Next Round

Savannah Sutherland and Craig Thorne made their Olympic debuts in the women’s 400 metre hurdles and men’s 110 metre hurdles, respectively.

Sutherland advanced directly to the semi-final with her 3rd place finish in her heat, clocking in at 54.80 seconds.

“I haven’t raced for a little bit over a month, so I was definitely shaking some of the dust off today, but I think I went out there and I competed well, and I’m really happy,” Sutherland said. “I’m excited for the chance to compete against a lot of amazing and talented women, especially women that I kind of looked up to growing up. Being able to compete against them and see my name listed against them is huge.”

Thorne will race in the repechage round after finishing 7th in his heat with a time of 13.60 seconds.

“I definitely didn’t really nail it the way I wanted to. I’ll learn and we’ll come back on Tuesday, ready to fight,” Thorne said. “I’ve just got to run my race. If I just stick to my lane and what I have to do, then it’ll go well.”

Team Canada Roundup

Charles Philibert-Thiboutot finished 11th in his men’s 1500 metre semi-final, with a time of 3:33.29. He did not advance to the event final.

Regan Yee and Ceili McCabe ran, jumped and splashed for Canada in the women’s 3000 metre steeplechase Sunday morning. Yee’s time of 9:27.81 in Heat 1 and McCabe’s time of  9:20.71 in Heat 2 were not enough to progress to the final.

“I knew what I had to do. I had to come top five. I tried to put myself in it and I think I’m just, I’m not fit enough right now to run that pace,” Yee said. “Wy water barriers were so bad. I tore muscle at nationals in the water barrier, so I think I was just kind of scared every time going through it. I lost ground every single lap on that and you just can’t afford to be scared like that at the Olympics.”

“I really executed that until about 400, 300 metres to go and I lost a little bit of momentum over one of the barriers,” McCabe said. “At this stage when you’re not a runner that’s runs sub nine, I think you kind of need every step that you can get going in the right direction and getting gapped.”

Tomorrow at Paris 2024

Jumps are back in style Monday morning, with Alysha Newman and Anicka Newell taking on the world in women’s pole vault qualifying.

Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown and Brendon Rodney start their men’s 200 metres journey with the first round of heats, while Audrey Leduc and Jacqueline Madogo look to take the next step on the women’s side.

Lauren Gale and Zoe Sherar toe the line in women’s 400 metre qualifiers.

The men’s steeplechase gets cracking, with Jean-Simon Desgagnés looking to move on to the next round.

Don’t Miss Anything

Watching your athletics team take on the world is serious business.

You need one place that gives you day-by-day Canadian athlete schedules, results in real time, the full Canadian roster and bios, historical stats to help you sound more like an expert, as well as direct access to all your broadcast and streaming options.

Go to our Paris 2024 Homepage, bookmark it, comeback every day and you will be ahead of the Games.

CBC/Radio-Canada’s comprehensive coverage of Paris 2024 will feature live broadcasts from every venue and include every Canadian medal-winning moment, with 22 hours of live television coverage each day and totalling more than 3000 hours of live content available on CBC and partner networks TSN and Sportsnet, CBC Gem, CBC’s Paris 2024 website (cbc.ca/paris2024) and the CBC Paris 2024 app for Android and iOS devices.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Caroline Sharp
National Teams Communications Specialist
Athletics Canada
WhatsApp: (613) 323-5605 / Cell: (214) 601-8024
E: Caroline.Sharp@athletics.ca

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