Shot-put bronze boosts Canada
Armstrong’s effort gives country most world championship medals since 1995
MOSCOW The Canadian track and field team is on pace for a historic performance at the world championships.
Dylan Armstrong won bronze in men’s shot put Friday to boost Canada’s medal haul to four, tying its bestever total at the competition.
The thrower from Kamloops, B.C., reached the podium with a season-best toss of 21.34 metres to capture his second straight medal at the event. He won silver in 2011.
“I just feel amazing,” Armstrong said. “My coach and I worked really hard, I made some really good choices this year.”
Armstrong joins Brianne Theisen-Eaton (silver, heptathlon), Damian Warner (bronze, decathlon) and Derek Drouin (bronze, high jump) as Canada’s medallists in Moscow.
Canada’s performance at the world championships has been an improvement over the 2012 London Olympics, where Drouin’s bronze was the track and field team’s only medal.
“It’s another medal for Canada, it shows that when you have the right coaches in place, the right support and the funding behind it that it’s going to pay off,” Armstrong said of his bronze. “You have to invest in sport, results don’t come for free.”
Canada also won four medals at the 1995 world championships in Sweden, though two of those were gold — one captured by Donovan Bailey in the men’s 100 and the other by the men’s 4x100-metre relay team.
David Storl of Germany retained his shot put title. Storl’s winning throw of 21.73 metres was first flagged for a foul but later reinstated. Ryan Whiting of the United States took silver with a toss of 21.57.
Armstrong was plagued by an elbow injury last season and finished a disappointing fifth at the London Games. He was a fourth-place finisher at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, though that may change after Belarusian Andrei Mikhnevich received a lifetime ban for a doping violation by the International Association of Athletics Federation, track’s governing body.
Mikhnevich’s medals at IAAF events have been stripped, but the International Olympic Committee has not yet relieved Mikhnevich of his 2008 bronze.
Friday’s bronze was a nice bonus, Armstrong said.
“I’m 32 years old, I’m really happy to have this extra medal in my career,” he said in an interview with the IAAF.
He credited his coach Anatoliy Bondarchuk for helping him record a season-best result this late in the year.
“He’s a smart guy and he can peak me when it counts,” said Armstrong.
In other Canadian results Friday, Nate Brannen of Cambridge, Ont., qualified for Sunday’s final in the men’s 1,500 metres while Angela Whyte of Edmonton and Jessica Zelinka of London, Ont., advanced to the semifinals of the women’s 100-metre hurdles.
Brannen was seventh in his semifinal with a season-best time of 3:36.59.
“I felt really good until like the last 50 metres,” he said. “With 400 metres to go I thought I could blast in but I got stuck out between lanes two and three. Going down the homestretch, I knew I was top seven so I just cruised it in. Hopefully I saved enough for the final.”
Whyte won her heat in a time of 12.93 seconds while Zelinka was fourth in hers at 13.15 seconds.
“Super relieved that it’s over,” said Whyte. “I couldn’t sleep last night.”
“Going to put it all out there tomorrow,” she said.
“I’ve been training on my own a lot this year. It’s like I forgot what it was like to race. I’m glad it’s out of the way.”
Canada failed to qualify in the women’s 4x400 while Tremaine Harris of Markham, Ont., didn’t get through in the men’s 200 and Vancouver’s Krista Woodward missed the final in women’s javelin.