THE UNDEFEATED
WATCH ON CRAVE
Canada's men's 4x100 relay team celebrates gold
It was a triumphant week for Canada’s athletes at the World Athletic Championships in Eugene, Oregon as they finished off the international competition with four medals, including three more podiums this past weekend.
Several big-time performances were made as Canada took home medals in both team and individual events, beginning on the third day of competition as Camryn Rogers made history.
With the sun beating down and the wind swirling on the afternoon of July 17, Camryn Rogers took to the competition field and launched her third throw in the final of the women’s hammer throw event. Reaching 75.52 metres, it was good enough to capture the silver medal for Canada – their first medal at these worlds – as Rogers became the first Canadian women to win a field event medal at the world championships.
The 23-year-old from Richmond, B.C., is a three-time NCAA champion, winning her third title last month. She also made history last summer in the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first ever Canadian woman ever to advance to the hammer throw final. She holds the national and NCAA records and will be a force to reckon with in the event for years to come.
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Next up was a spectacular performance by Marco Arop. The 23-year-old from Edmonton became Canada’s first world championship medallist in the men’s 800m since 2007 after finishing with a time of 1:44.28 to capture bronze.
After taking the lead after the first 300 metres, Arop was eventually caught up to in the final 100m, but he managed to hang on the podium at the the Worlds for the first time in his career after finishing seventh at the 2019 world championships. Arop has been on roll despite only beginning his career six years ago.
In the decathlon, there’s a new Canadian on the podium after Pierce LePage smashed his previous personal best to earn silver at this year’s championships. He finished with a total of 8701 points, good for almost 100 points higher than his previous best as he claimed his first career medal.
The pressure was on LePage as Olympic champion and his mentor, Damian Warner was forced to retire from the event after sustaining a hamstring injury, leaving LePage as Canada’s lone representative in the event. He’s no stranger to rising up however, as he finished fifth at the Tokyo 2020 Games despite competing with a torn patella. This time around, he set personal bests in the 400 metres, 110m hurdles, javelin throw and discus event. His time of 4:42.77 in the 1500m was good enough to clinch silver.
And of course, none can forget one of the competition’s main events, where for the first time in 25 years, Team Canada is crowned world champions in the men’s 4x100 relay.
The quartet of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse executed their training perfectly, capturing gold with a blazing fast time of 37.48 seconds to set a new Canadian record. The team was in third place at the halfway mark before handing off to De Grasse, who quickly caught up with American Marvin Bracy in the last leg to finish first.
It was a special way to cap off a tumultuous week for De Grasse, one of Canada’s most high-profile Olympians. He was recovering from contracting COVID-19 just weeks before the championships began which affected his overall preparation for the competition. The reigning Olympic 200m champion failed to qualify for the 100m final, but was ultimately able to help his team finish strong with their first podium position since 2015 and first gold since Donovan Bailey led the team to victory in 1997.
