IN THE LONG RUN
800-metre specialist Melissa Bishop leads one of Canada’s deepest fields at Olympic trials,
EDMONTON— Look left or look right and there was a world champion sitting on stage at the opening news conference of the Canadian track and field trials for the Rio Games.
And, sitting between pole vault champion Shawn Barber and high jump champion Derek Drouin were world silver medallists Melissa Bishop and Damian Warner. There are even more world medallists, they just haven’t arrived at Foote Field yet.
The athletes are looking to get to Rio and follow up Canada’s best performance at a world championships — eight medals in Beijing last summer — with a far better Olympic result than the single medal they came home from London with.
“The nice thing is that we’re such a full team now,” said Drouin, whose bronze was Canada’s only athletics medal at the 2012 Games. “We have medal hopes in all areas on the track, the field and the road.”
The Rio team of some 60 athletes will be named Monday. A look at who’s a sure thing to go to Rio, and some of the battles for a spot:
SURE BETS
Pole vault: Barber, the Canadian record holder and 2015 world champion, is the star of this field. His outdoor record is 5.93 metres and he took the national indoor record to 6.00 metres this year.
800 metres: Bishop returned from injury to win a silver medal at the 2015 world championships and grab the long-time standing Canadian record. Fiona Benson and Jessica Smith also have the Rio standard but Bishop’s best (1:57.52) puts her two seconds clear of her closest competitor.
High jump: Derek Drouin has a history of delivering when it counts most, including gold at the last world championships. He’ll be joined for much of Saturday’s competition by Michael Mason who has also met the Rio standard of 2.29 metres.
Long jump: Christabel Nettey set the Canadian record of 6.99 metres last year and went on to a fourth place at the 2015 world championships. She shouldn’t be challenged by the field here, which includes her older sister.
Multi-events: Decathlete Damian Warner and heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton won silver at the 2015 world championships and have long been pegged to win medals in Rio. The national record holders don’t have to contest their gruelling twoday events here, just a few individual events to show they’re fit. They’ll still be tough to beat. Warner will compete in long jump and 110-metre hurdles — he’s the top qualifier in both — and Theisen-Eaton will compete in the high jump, where she is ranked second, and the shot put. 100 metres: Andre De Grasse, Canada’s fastest man in nearly two decades, seems a sure bet to make the Rio team, as does Aaron Brown, the only other Canadian to run a sub-10 second 100 since the 1990s. But there are three others entered with the Rio standard.
100m hurdles: At the last Olympic trials, this event had the deepest field and two of Canada’s top hurdlers didn’t even make the London team. It’s a deep field again Sunday and more athletes have the qualifying standard than can go. Heading in, the top time belongs to Phylicia George.
5,000 metres: Mohammed Ahmed, who smashed the Canadian record in this event in May (13:01.74), has the fastest time among the four men who have the Rio standard. But many will be watching Cameron Levins to see if he can get back the form he had before he fell in a race on this track at last year’s Canadian nationals.
Steeplechase: With an unprecedented number of Canadians with the Olympic standard, six women and three men, both races should be exciting. The pick of each field includes national record holders Genevieve Lalonde and Matthew Hughes.
Pole vault: Canada qualified just one woman in this event at the last Olympics but there are four who have met the 2016 Rio standard by jumping over 4.50 metres. The top entry in the field is Anicka Newell with a 4.67 best.