Camryn Rogers claims hammer throw gold, becoming 1st Canadian woman to win world title in 20 years
Olympic champion Andre De Grasse punches ticket to 200m final
With one toss, Camryn Rogers rewrote the Canadian record books.
The Richmond, B.C., native won hammer throw gold at the World Athletics Championships on Thursday in Budapest with her initial heave of 77.22 metres.
Rogers's victory completed Canada's first-ever hammer-throw double after fellow B.C. native Ethan Katzberg won the men's event.
Rogers, 24, is also the second Canadian woman to win a gold medal at worlds, and the first since Perdita Felicien in 2003. She improves on the silver she obtained at 2022 worlds in Eugene, Ore., when she became the first Canadian woman to win a medal in a field event.
"It's almost hard to wrap my mind around everything that's happened. I think it's gonna hit me later on. What an incredible and magical night," Rogers told CBC Sports' Andi Petrillo after the race.
Janee' Kassanavoid of the United States (76.36) claimed silver and fellow American DeAnna Price (75.41) earned bronze.
She entered the world championships ranked second in the world in women's hammer throw, won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and is a three-time NCAA champion and record holder.
Rogers's and Katzberg's medals are Canada's lone podium appearances in the Budapest thus far.
"To me, no one would have scripted this in one week. Hammer throw gold for the men and the women. Goodbye hockey, hello hammer throw," said Felicien, serving as an analyst for CBC Sports.
Four of Rogers's six throws in the competition would have been enough to win the gold medal — but she appeared calm throughout, leaning on advice from a fellow throw that "it's not over 'til it's over."
"Having that helped keep me focused until it was over," Rogers said, "and then it was hugs."
De Grasse moves on
Meanwhile, Andre De Grasse gave himself a chance to prove his big-race reputation once again.
The Markham, Ont., native qualified for the 200-metre final with a time of 20.10, good for third in his heat.
"That was tough," De Grasse said. "I'm missing that 100 speed, of course, and they got away from me on the turn, which doesn't usually happen. But I live to fight another day."
De Grasse, the reigning Olympic champion in the distance, struggled through much of the 2023, failing to meet the qualifying standard time for the 100 and only getting into the 200 on the last day possible, when he ran a 20.01 to win the Canadian title.
But the six-time Olympic medallist and five-time world medallist has always seemed to come up clutch when races matter most.
"I'm a competitor. I always want to come out here and do my best for my country, my family, my friends. And no matter what type of shape I'm in or how healthy I am I just try to go out here and compete," De Grasse said. "I'm in the final after a struggling season so I'll take that."
But he'll face stiff competition in that final on Friday, including American Noah Lyles, the 100 champion who's boasted of breaking Usain Bolt's longstanding world record.
In addition to Lyles, Americans Kenny Bednarek and Erriyon Knighton, plus Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, all broke the 20-second mark in the semis.
Toronto's Aaron Brown, whose time of 20.19 seconds in the first semi would have been enough to go through, was disqualified for stepping on the line.
Brown told Petrillo after the race that he planned on appealing the ruling.
"It's definitely disappointing. It's a tough one to swallow. There's nothing I can really say right now, just gotta be a professional about it," Brown said.
Brendon Rodney, of Etobicoke, Ont., failed to advance with his time of 20.27 seconds.
"You always think you can do things better, but really you just gotta run fast on the day. That's it," Rodney said.
Still, Brown and Rodney aren't done in Budapest, as they'll form half of Canada's 4x100 relay team that kicks off its title defence with heats on Friday.
Cart crash
Rodney's race was delayed after two carts, one of which was carrying some competitors including the Canadian and Lyles, crashed into each other.
All eight runners scheduled for the race competed, though a video shows Jamaica's Andrew Hudson pressing his fingers to his right eye, in apparent pain.
World Athletics put out a statement saying Hudson had been cleared to race and the volunteer was "fine." Later, Hudson was moved through to Friday's final due to a referee's decision.
This is the first world championships for the 26-year-old from Jamaica., whose personal-best time was 19.87 and was ranked 11th in the world this year.
"I did the best I could do," he said after finishing in 20.38. "I was sitting in the middle of the room for like 20 minutes, trying to have a decision if I was going to compete or not. I worked hard to be here. And even under circumstances, everybody has hurdles in life. If I can run I'm going to try my best. So I tried.
"It is my first world championships so it's going to be memorable. ... Maybe I'd better walk next time."
An aerial video shows the cart carrying the athletes cruising down a sidewalk outside the stadium to bring the athletes to the warm-up room in the track. An oncoming cart hits the athletes' cart in the middle and a volunteer wearing an orange shirt comes tumbling out of the first cart.
In the women's 200 semis, Sha'Carri Richardson took one more step toward completing the double by qualifying second in her heat at 22.20 seconds. Jamaica's Shericka Jackson, the reigning world champion, is also through, as are other contenders Marie-Josée Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast and St. Lucia's Julien Alfred.
"This was a revenge run for her," Felicien said of Jackson, who took silver in the 100m. "So she's like, OK, I'm going to show you what I can do. And she turned off the jets, probably with 30 metres to go. I think she's more lethal now because she did not get gold in the 100 metres."
American Gabby Thomas posted the fastest time at 21.97 seconds.
Meanwhile, Canadian racewalker Evan Dunfee will be going home with a pair of fourth-place finishes.
The 32-year-old from Richmond, B.C., ended up just off the podium in the 35-kilometre event, blazing to a season's-best time of two hours 25 minutes 28 seconds.
That time was 13 seconds off the bronze-medal-winning time of Japan's Masatora Kawano.
Spain's Álvaro Martín won gold in 2:24:30, while Brian Daniel Pintado of Ecuador (2:24:34) took silver.
Dunfee also finished fourth in the 20km event on Saturday, setting a Canadian record in the process. He said he was battling a hamstring injury entering the race.
"There was a moment there where I wasn't sure I was going to finish the race, but the adrenaline or whatever it was kicked in and I was able to regroup and hobble, for lack of a better word, across the finish line," Dunfee told Petrillo.
"Some silver lining there as well that I was actually able to get to that finish line, but being so close to another medal, it is a little heartbreaking. I am disappointed, but that's sport."
Evan Dunfee is 4th in the 🌎 in the 20K & 35K Racewalk!<br><br>Dunfee started off Day 6 here at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Budapest2023?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Budapest2023</a> with a great performance and Season’s Best time of 2:25:28 in the 35K Racewalk placing 4th 🇨🇦😮💨<br><br>Congratulations <a href="https://twitter.com/EvanDunfee?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@evandunfee</a> you are incredible! <a href="https://t.co/faShiDneFk">pic.twitter.com/faShiDneFk</a>
—@AthleticsCanadaWatch Athletics North every day during the World Athletics Championships on CBCSports.ca and CBC Sports YouTube Channel for a rundown of the day's top stories and events. Rob Pizzo will be joined by our track and field analysts, including Morgan Campbell, to bring you the latest storylines.
Also, a pair of past Canadian medallists booked their spots in medal races.
Canada's Moh Ahmed, the 32-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., will race in Sunday's 5,000 final after he placed third in his heat at 13:33.16.
Ahmed, who placed sixth in the 10,000 earlier in Budapest, is aiming to add to his 5,000 medal collection which included silver from the Tokyo Olympics and bronze from the 2019 worlds.
Reigning Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei did not start the race. The Ugandan won 10,000 gold earlier at the meet.
Guatemala's Luis Grijalva was the fastest qualifier at 13:32.72.
Ben Flanagan, of Kitchener, Ont., was eliminated after placing 11th in the first heat at 13:38.69.
In the men's 800, Edmonton's Marco Arop cruised into Saturday's final after winning his heat at 1:44.02.
Arop, 24, won bronze at 2022 worlds after making his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020. He entered Budapest the top-ranked 800 runner in the world.
Kenya's Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who was fastest in heats, once again set the pace in semis at 1:43.83.
Surprise in women's 100 hurdles
Jamaica's Danielle Williams raced to her second world title in the women's 100 hurdles.
The 30-year-old, who won world gold in 2015 and bronze in 2019, edged Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico to win in 12.43 seconds.
"I think she was under the radar so much that nobody else really was focused on her," Felicien said. "And so she was able to come in, execute her race."
Camacho-Quinn had to settle for silver in 12.44.
Less than a tenth of a second separated the top four hurdlers with American Kendra Harrison taking bronze in 12.46, keeping Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas (12.52) off the podium.
With files from The Associated Press, The Canadian Press and Reuters
