We were on site at the Canadian Championships this past week, which were held over 5 days in Ottawa. During that time, we got to watch many of the nation’s top athletes reach their peaks ahead of the 2025 World Championships, which will be held in Tokyo next month.
Many of Canada’s top athletes confirmed their qualification for the World Championships, and some new faces will be added to the roster as well. Here’s a summary of some of the top performances.
The defending World Champion, Marco Arop, led the way in the 800-meter, putting on a show in the semi-final, running 1:44.46. He would lead his qualifying section by three seconds and then post a seemingly effortless 1:45.44 in the final to take home his fifth national title and fourth in a row.
In the field, Olympic Champion Ethan Katzberg led the way in the men’s hammer throw by 10 meters, launching the hammer 81.33 meters, only three meters shy of his personal best and beyond the distance that captured him gold at the last World Championship. The World Record of 86.74 seems to be within reach for the 22-year-old. It wouldn’t be surprising if his biggest throws are yet to come.
On the female side, Canada’s other Olympic gold medalist in the hammer throw, Camryn Rogers, tossed 77.30 meters to take home gold over Jillian Weir, who threw 72.61 meters herself. Rogers has taken home victory in 8 of her 9 meetings this year. Her only runner-up finish happened at the Trond Mohn Games in Norway, where she was edged out by Finland’s Silja Kosonen.
World Championship silver medalist Sarah Mitton would throw over 19 meters and take home victory with a toss of 19.25 meters, maintaining a commanding three-meter lead on her way to victory.
The Olympic Champion in the decathlon, Damian Warner, unsurprisingly led the way in the men’s hurdles, running a time of 13.59 seconds. It’s his eleventh national title spread over the decathlon and individual events.For all his accomplishments, Warner is still missing the World Champion gold medal and will be looking to add this to his collection in September.
Savannah Sutherland took home her first 400-meter national championships with a time of 51.51 seconds, not contesting her main event, the 400-meter hurdles, in which she recently won the NCAA Championships and set the NCAA and Canadian records in the event.
Jerome Blake made a statement in the 200-meter, running under 20 seconds for the first time with 19.95 seconds, finishing ahead of teammate on the Olympic gold 4×100-meter team, Aaron Brown. Blake also ran the fastest time in the 100-meter final under protest after a false start, but his appeal wouldn’t go through. Victory in the 100-meter would go to Duan Asemota, who won his first national championship with a time of 10.12 seconds.
In the men’s triple jump, Praise Aniamaka jumped 16.50 meters (2.1m/s), recording the longest jump at the Canadian Championships since the Championship record was set in 1989 by Canadian record holder Edrick Floréal. The event has shown a recent resurgence in Canada over the past few years, with all three podium finishers jumping over 16 meters.
Canadian record holder Audrey Leduc took home the double victory in the 100-meter and 200-meter, breaking the championship record in the 100-meter with a time of 11.06 seconds. She also ran under the championship record of 22.64 seconds (running 22.55 seconds), but the wind was over the allowable limit.
Gabriela Debues-Stafford completed the double in the women’s 1500-meter and 5,000-meter, running 4:08.38 and 15:17.32, respectively.