What’s really exciting about this year’s IAAF World Athletics Championships is the mainstream coverage it’s receiving here in Canada. For a meet that is usually in the dog days of summer, the decision to hold it in Qatar in 2019 has it much later than normal (even into October!), right in the crush of the start of the NHL season and MLB postseason, not to mention the rest of sports, including two World Marathon Majors.
But athletics is gaining popularity, not the least part due to the star power of our current crop of Canadian athletes. And with 6 Olympic medals for the Canadian Athletics program in Rio, more than the combined 5 total from 1996 – 2012 (including Donovan Bailey!), the excitement and expectations haven’t been higher for many years.
We’re now halfway through the competition so here is what we’ve seen and what we’re looking forward to in Doha 2019!
What’s happened so far
Day 1 – At age 41, Lyndsay Tessier finished 9th in the women’s marathon, at her first World Championship.
Day 2 – Big medal day: Bronze for Andre De Grasse in the men’s 100m (Aaron Brown was 8th), and another bronze in the men’s 50k race walk for Evan Dunfee
Day 3 – Alysha Newman claimed 5th place in a very deep women’s pole vault competition
Day 4 – Moh Ahmed is bringing home a bronze medal from the men’s 5000m, in which Justyn Knight was also 10th in the final.
Day 5 – Marco Arop, Pan Am Games champ, finished 7th in the men’s 800m, while De Grasse earned his second medal, a silver in the men’s 200m. Brown was 6th.
What’s up next
Day 6 – Multievent competitions start today. No Canadians in the women’s heptathlon competition, but Damian Warner and Pierce LePage are sitting 2nd and 4th in the men’s decathlon after three events.
Gabriela Debues-Stafford qualified out of her 1500m heat today, as did Andrea Seccafien in the women’s 5000m (PB). Sage Watson ran a new national record in the women’s 400mH to qualify for the finals.
Day 7 – men’s 1500m heats (no Canadians), finish of decathlon/heptathlon
Day 8 -men’s high jump final (Mason), men’s steeplechase final (Hughes), 4x100m heats
Day 9 – 4x100m finals, women’s 1500m and 5000m finals, men’s marathon
Day 10 – men’s 10,000m (Ahmed)
Happy following!
Huge thanks to CBC for always livestreaming great content, and to Trackie for making it easy to find!
