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Audrey Leduc pulled away late from Sadé McCreath for her third consecutive women’s 100-metre title Sunday at the Edmonton Athletics Invitational, with Foote Field still abuzz from what transpired a little over one hour earlier.
In the second of two semifinal heats, McCreath defeated Celera Barnes of the United States in a Canadian record 10.86 seconds to eclipse Leduc’s 10.94 from the semis a year ago in Edmonton for the fastest 100m on Canadian soil.
McCreath also boasts the eighth fastest women’s time this year, 23-100ths of a second behind world leader, Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands.
Last June 22, McCreath delivered a 10.95 breakthrough performance to win at the Bob Vigars Classic in London, Ont.
It qualified the 30-year-old for the World Athletics Championships last September in Tokyo, where McCreath ran 11.41 into a slight headwind in the heats and didn’t advance to the semifinals.
Her time Sunday would have been inside the 10.96 automatic entry standard for worlds in September 2027, but the qualifying window doesn’t open until Aug. 23.
Leduc clocked a wind-aided 10.90 in Sunday’s final, 5-100ths fastest than McCreath, who was fifth last year in Edmonton in 11.28. McCreath also placed second to Leduc of Gatineau, Que., at the Canadian track and field championships last month in Ottawa.
The legal limit for a tailwind is 2.0 metres per second and Sunday’s final measured 2.6, compared to 3.2 in Leduc’s semifinal heat when she ran 10.88 for the win.
McCreath had a strong 2026 indoor campaign, running a 7.12-second personal best on two occasions over 60 metres and advanced to the world championships semifinals on March 21 in Poland.
Relay standout
In May, she helped the women’s 4×100 relay team improve its Canadian record to 42.17 outdoors in the final at World Relays in Gaborone, Botswana.
McCreath was also a member of the 2024 Canadian Olympic women’s relay squad in Paris that set a then-national mark of 42.50 in the heats and won gold at World Relays last year.
Four days after finishing fourth at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland, McCreath made her Diamond League debut in Stockholm on June 7, placing seventh (11.29) in a field of eight. Two weeks ago, she won at the Pan American Athletics Championships in Medellín, Colombia.
Sade McCreath of Ajax, Ont., finished seventh at the Diamond League meet in Stockholm with a time of 11.29.
Elsewhere Sunday, middle-distance runner Marco Arop won his fourth men’s 800 race in Edmonton, his hometown, while Sarah Mitton stood out in the field portion at the fifth annual event.
Arop reached the finish in one minute 42.13 seconds to beat Japan’s Allon Clay (1:44.32). Arop went a season-best 1:41.84 two weeks earlier at the Meeting de Paris Diamond League event in France.
Arop is scheduled to travel to England this week and return to Diamond League action Saturday at the London Athletics meet. Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi is also expected to race there after breaking the world record in the rarely contested 1,000 in two minutes 11.83 seconds last week at the Herculis EBS meet in Monaco. He shaved 0.13 seconds off compatriot Noah Ngeny’s 1996 mark.
Abdullahi Hassan, who is teammates with Arop with the APEX Athletics running group in Mississippi, was third in Sunday’s race in 1:44.68.
Sarah Mitton returned to throwing beyond 20 metres for the first time in four shot put competitions, taking the women’s event by nearly three metres with a 20.20 effort. Jamaica’s Lloydricia Cameron was second (17.29).
It was the fourth victory of the season for Mitton, who captured her sixth straight Canadian title on June 19.
In other events:
- Christopher Morales Williams of Maple, Ont., (near Toronto) was victorious in the men’s 400. He prevailed in 44.44 seconds, 1-100th ahead of Justin Robinson of the U.S.
- Savannah Sutherland of Borden Sask., a first-time Olympian two years ago, was fourth in the women’s 400 in 51.21. Nicole Yeargin of Great Britain was first in 50.98. Sutherland won last year in a 50.62 PB.
- On Friday, four-time Olympian Aaron Brown of Toronto was second in the men’s 200 at the Ed Murphey Classic in Memphis, Tenn. The 34-year-old, coming off his second victory at nationals in the past three years, ran a wind-aided 19.88, 1-100th behind Denzel Simusialela of Zimbabwe. Brown ran a 2026 best of 20.07 on April 26 for second at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
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