MONTREAL — Audrey Leduc and Andre De Grasse won the 100m final at the Canadian Track and Field Trials on Friday. If Leduc did it unequivocally, it was necessary to resort to a revision for De Grasse to confirm his victory.
Leduc was imperial, winning in 11 seconds, 20 hundredths (11.20), 16 hundredths better than Ottawa’s Jacqueline Madogo (11.36) and Quebec’s Marie-Éloïse Leclair (11.44).
The Gatineau sprinter has thus made her selection official for the Paris Olympic Games. Madogo and Leclair will accompany her for the 4 x 100 m relay. Madogo still has a chance of qualifying for the 100 m, but she must wait for the results of the other National Championships held this weekend elsewhere on the planet.
“It’s really exceptional to experience this, especially in Quebec, in front of this crowd, in front of my family. I couldn’t ask for better,” said Leduc.
“This week I was watching the videos [du Comité olympique canadien] on how to finalize our preparations for Paris and I was starting to feel the excitement, so I said to myself that I would wait a little bit, until it was really done. Now I know and I am really happy.”
Leduc, who holds the Canadian marks in the 100 and 200 m, covered the distance in 11.09 in the semi-finals.
“It’s still colder [que lors des demi-finales], said Leduc to explain the slower times in the evening. We stayed longer on the line to be introduced, that certainly had an impact on the performance.
“I had no expectations, I was going to do my race and win.”
On the men’s side, there was an imbroglio on the track at the Claude-Robillard Sports Complex. While De Grasse seemed to have crossed the finish line first – he actually raised his arms in victory – the scoreboard showed the Ottawan of Beninese origin Elizer Adjibi winning in 10.20, against 10 .23 for De Grasse.
After the video review, it appears that the lanes were mixed up, as De Grasse clocked 10.20 and Adjibi 10.23. Aaron Brown finished third, in 10.25.
“I was confused, I was sure I had won: I didn’t see anyone in my peripheral vision and I didn’t believe I had been passed by anyone in the outer corridors. It was a good joke!” said De Grasse.
Adjibi, who arrived in Canada in 2012, seemed very disappointed by the turn of events, he who had already started celebrating on the track with the Unifolié, which he still graciously presented to De Grasse.
“I have no idea what happened, except that we may have crossed the line all at the same time,” said Adjibi. The fact that it stayed like that for a little while, I figured I probably won. It can not be helped. It’s still a good race.”
Adjibi could, however, have earned his place in the 4 x 100 m relay.
“We have great depth. There are guys who surprised me here, whose names I didn’t know before,” De Grasse noted. “Eli will help us in the relay to try to bring home the gold.”
De Grasse, a six-time Olympic medalist and reigning Olympic champion in the 200m, declared earlier this week that he wanted to clock a time of less than 10 seconds at these National Trials, as he believes he is in his best physical condition since the Tokyo Games. . It wasn’t possible.
He ran 10.00 seconds last week in Finland, the 25th fastest time over this distance in 2024.
Morales-Williams domine
The fastest man in the world over 400 meters had no trouble qualifying for the distance final at the Canadian Track and Field Trials on Friday.
Ontarian Christopher Morales-Williams stopped the clock at 45 seconds, 77 hundredths (45.77) to win his heat, setting the fastest time of the day in the process.
“It wasn’t bad. I just wanted to see where I was because I hadn’t run since the NCAA finals,” Morales-Williams said. I am still recovering from this competition. I feel pretty good, but I haven’t got everything back yet. Let’s hope that [samedi] will be a better day. (…) It went well, a well-oiled race that allows me to go to the final.”
The Vaughan sprinter beat Australian Steven Solomon (46.11), as well as reigning Olympic decathlon gold medalist Damien Warner (47.46). Warner will advance to the final.
“The plan was to stay well away from Christopher. On this point, it’s successful,” joked Warner, who is competing in this event more like a training session than to win.
Solomon is obviously automatically excluded as an international rider. As his time would have been sufficient, the final will be run with seven riders.
Morales-Williams has held the Canadian record of 44.05 since last May. It is the fastest 400m he has run this season. The University of Georgia student has won every race he has run at the distance this season.
“There’s always pressure, not just because I’m No. 1 in the world, but because I’m a competitor,” Morales-Williams said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself because anyone can win a race on any given day.”
The reigning national champion, he won the American university championship and currently occupies the world number one ranking, after winning the silver medal at the 2023 Pan American Junior Championships.
“I want to defend my title,” admitted the Ontarian. Hopefully it won’t be too crazy, but if I have to run a big race, I will. I would rather not, because the guys who will be in the final in Paris will not have had a big university season like me. So I’m aiming for the title for more than a while [samedi].»
Arop alone in front
In the 800m, reigning world champion Marco Arop demonstrated that he was untouchable in the country over this distance, setting a competition record and also achieving an Olympic standard in 1:43.53.
He finished well ahead of his closest pursuer, Matti Erickson, who finished the event in 1:47.68.
Two Quebecers qualified for the final which will be played on Saturday, namely Zakari Mama-Yari (1:48.19) and Yassine Aber (1:49.17).
