Athletics: Canada claims three medals at Diamond League final in Belgium
Team Canada had a strong showing at the IAAF Diamond League in Brussels, Belgium on Friday afternoon. Collectively, Canadian track athletes claimed three medals and set new national records in the Diamond League finale.
Andre De Grasse sprinted his way to the podium for Canada, posting a season’s best time of 19.87 seconds to capture bronze in the men’s 200m final. Right behind De Grasse in fourth place was none other than teammate Aaron Brown who finished the race in 20.00 seconds.
De Grasse was joined on the podium by the United States’ Noah Lyles in first and Ramil Guliyev of Turkey in second , registering times of 19.74 and 19.86 respectively. Guliyev ran just one hundredth of a second faster than De Grasse.
Alysha Newman was next up on the podium, flying to third place in women’s pole vault after clearing 4.77m. Rio Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi of Greece posted a season’s best 4.83 to capture first place, while Russia’s Anzhelika Sidrova came in second.
Sage Watson won big, claiming the non-Diamond League 400m hurdle event title with a time of 55.58. She was joined on the podium by Paulien Couckuyt (55.68) and Ayomide Folorunso (56.80).
While she didn’t place, Gabriela DeBues-Stafford broke yet another national record. For the third time this season, she set a new Canadian record in the women’s 5000m final. She crossed the finish line in 14:44.12, beating her previous record by seven seconds (14:51.59).
Brussels DL wrapped up the IAAF’s final Diamond League stop of the season.
