Sarah Mitton denied Diamond League Trophy for 2nd straight year by record-setting Chase Ealey

Sarah Mitton of Brooklyn, N.S., ended another spectacular shot put season with her 14th top-two finish in 17 events, placing second to American Chase Ealey at the Diamond League Final, as she did a year ago.

Mitton, who also placed second to the gold medallist Ealey late last month at the World Athletics Championships, had a best throw of 19.94 metres on Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

The 27-year-old Canadian led the six-woman competition until Ealey stepped into the circle in the second round at sunny Hayward Field and threw a season world-leading 20.61, also a meet and American record. She lengthened her personal best to 20.76 on her third of six tries before not registering a throw on her final three attempts.

Ealey, 29, earned the Diamond League Trophy and $30,000 US top prize for her performance while Mitton takes home $12,000.

Cameroon-Portuguese athlete Auriol Dongmo, who topped all qualifiers for the Final with 25 points through the season, was third Saturday with a 19.92 PB, while Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands threw a 19.88 season best for fourth.

Mitton, who is ranked second in the world, secured a spot at her second Final by throwing 19.76 on Sept. 7 in Brussels, where Ealey, the 2021 Olympic champion, threw 20.05.

In June, the Canadian record holder beat Ealey at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway, for her first Diamond League win. She also prevailed in a head-to-head match in February, defeating the top-ranked Ealey in Madrid at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold series meet.

WATCH | Mitton throws 19.94m for 2nd at Diamond League Final:

After Mitton won world silver with a 20.08 SB, her coach Rich Parkinson noted the Toronto resident’s pathway has accelerated only due to her work ethic.

“It hasn’t been easy, but she has learned how to compete,” said Parkinson of Mitton, the first-ever Canadian woman to pick up a medal at the event.

At the Olympics two years ago in Tokyo, where Mitton didn’t advance after throwing 16.62 in the qualification round, she began working with Natascha Wesch, a mental performance consultant and professor in the physical therapy department at Western University in London, Ont.

Until then, she had delivered the results in competition she expected.

“I wasn’t sure I’d ever be a world [medallist] at that point, but I had achieved my goal of making the [Canadian Olympic] team,” Mitton told CBC Sports recently. “I didn’t perform to the level I expected.

“I learned it’s such a privilege to do this sport, and the sport definitely doesn’t define who I am. I’ve learned to enjoy the moment … and you have to be fearless in life and everything.

“You can go after your dreams,” Mitton continued. “You’re maybe not going to achieve everything you want. It’s been cool to grow from a perfectionist who was so dialled in that not performing [well] felt like my world was crumbling to now feeling like I’ve had more success by letting go of the grip of that a little bit more. Being able to relax and enjoy throwing for the right reasons as opposed to just being driven by success.”

On Sunday in Eugene, middle-distance runner Marco Arop, along with sprinters Aaron Brown and Andre De Grasse, will look to become the first Canadian to be crowned Diamond League champion since Dylan Armstrong in shot put in 2011.

Arop, the world champion in the men’s 800 metres, races at 3:04 p.m. ET, fresh off a second-place finish at a Diamond League meet in Xiamen, China. He clocked a 1:43.24 PB — only 4-100ths of a second behind winner and world No. 1 Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya, who is also in Sunday’s eight-man field.

Last September, Arop was fresh off earning world bronze when he made a move with one lap to go at the Diamond League Final in Zurich. He led into the final straight but was caught by Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir fewer than 10 metres from the finish line, placing second to the reigning Olympic champion in a season-best 1:43.38. He was fourth in 2021, clocking 1:45.23.

“I feel last year was so close,” he told CBC Sports this week, “and it left me hungrier than ever. Worlds is great and everything above it, but to end the season as a Diamond League champion would solidify this year as my greatest.”