The IAAF World Indoor Championships took place in Birmingham, UK from March 1-4, 2018. Team Canada sent 14 athletes to the event, 10 of which were representing Ontario. It was an exciting four days and we are proud of the performances from our athletes.
On day two of the Championship, five of our athletes competed. Competing in heats 1 and 2 of the 1500m, were Gabriela Stafford and Kate Van Buskirk. They both ran incredible races and placed 5th and 3rd respectively in their heats, with times of 4:09.94 and 4:09.42, both setting new personal bests! Gabriella’s new time replaces her previous U24 Espoir Ontario record time of 4:11.46. Running in the 400m was Kelsey Balkwill, and after pushing hard for the whole race, she finished 4th in her heat with a time of 53.29 seconds. After a successful birth into the 60m semi-finals, Crystal Emmanuel ran the race in 7.27 seconds, and as fast as that is, unfortunately it wasn’t fast enough to qualify her for the final. Lastly, Brittany Crew represented us in the field on day two, throwing 17.61m and placing 10th in the event.
Day three was a big one for Canada. TWO new Canadian records for our athletes. In the morning, Tim Nedow represented Ontario in the men’s shot put. He threw a season best distance of 20.82m and finished 9th in the event. Damian Warner spent two days competing in seven events for the Men’s Heptathlon. After six of those events, he was a mere 34 points behind the leader, leaving just the 1,000m to determine who the winner would be. After an incredible race where Damian led for the final four laps, his time was just not fast enough to earn him the gold, but he happily took home the silver medal and a new Canadian record with his 6,343 point total. Lastly, in the women’s pole vault, Alysha Newman cleared a new personal best height of 4.70m, and since she held the previous Canadian record, this became the newest record!
On day four, Shawn Barber competed in the men’s pole vault. He cleared a height of 5.45m and finished 15th in the event. Lastly, Jonathan Cabral qualified for the semi-finals of the men’s 60m Hurdles, where he ran a time of 7.71s and finished 6th place in his heat.
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With credit to Athletics Canada and A Runners Eye, the Team Canada photo gallery is available here.
For the final schedule and results, click here.