Was that Canada’s best track and field world championships ever?
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Saturday was an incredible day for Canadian track and field. In the span of about an hour at the world championships in Budapest, Pierce LePage and Damian Warner won gold and silver in the decathlon, Marco Arop took gold in the men’s 800m and Sarah Mitton grabbed silver in the women’s shot put.
The medal binge tripled Canada’s medal count, from two to six. That’s where it ended after a medal-less Sunday that saw the women’s 4x400m relay team place fourth and distance runner Moh Ahmed finish seventh in the men’s 5,000m.
In terms of total medals, this was Canada’s second-most successful World Athletics Championships ever, trailing its eight-medal outburst in 2015 in Beijing. But you can argue this was in fact Canada’s best worlds ever.
WATCH | Breaking down a wild Saturday at worlds:
An historic day for Canada as Arop and LePage become the first-ever Canadian world champions in their events, while Sarah Mitton and Damian Warner land on the podium for a 4 medal haul on Day 8. All this and more in our Athletics North Day 8 recap.
The key here is gold medals. The 2015 team won two of them, matching the previous record set by the Donovan Bailey-led 1995 squad. This year’s team doubled it, with the victories by LePage and Arop coming after the surprising hammer-throw title sweep by Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers.
The organizers of the world championships place a premium on gold medals. That’s why Canada finished second in the official medal standings (behind the United States, the runaway winner with 12 gold and 29 total) despite tying for sixth in the total count. If you apply the same standard to Canada’s historical results, then this team is our GOAT.
Regardless of where you stand in the debate, we might all agree that next summer’s Olympics can’t come fast enough. The average age of Canada’s four world champions is 24, so they’ll all be in their prime in Paris.
Yes, it was disappointing that Canada failed to win a sprinting medal at the worlds for the first time since 2017. And the outlook for Paris in track’s marquee events doesn’t look promising as Andre De Grasse seems to have lost a step and there’s no apparent successor to the man who reached six Olympic podiums and another five at worlds from 2015 to 2022.
WATCH | Arop wins 800m gold:
The Edmonton runner captured Canada’s first-ever gold medal in the 800 meters after a dominant second lap.
But it’s exciting to see Canadians breaking through in such a wide variety of events. Arop is the first Canadian to win an 800m world championship. LePage is the first Canadian to win the decathlon crown (two years after Warner became the first to win Olympic gold). Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers are the first two Canadians to win hammer throw world titles. Mitton is the first Canadian woman to win a shot put medal at worlds.
The Olympic track and field events begin in 340 days. Let the countdown begin.
