Camryn Rogers 2nd in hammer throw at Paavo Nurmi Games to lead Canadian contingent
Doug Harrison | CBC Sports | Posted: June 13, 2023 10:49 PM | Last Updated: June 13, 2023
Pole vaulter Newman posts no height; runner Kipyegon rewarded for world records
Hammer thrower Camryn Rogers of Richmond, B.C., earned her second consecutive second-place finish on Tuesday after winning the first four events of her outdoor season.
The 24-year-old opened competition at the Paavo Nurmi Games with a throw of 76.21 metres that would stand as her best of the day at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet in Turku, Finland.
"Today was OK," she said. "I was enjoying the moment … [the] atmosphere was amazing [at Paavo Nurmi Stadium]."
A week ago, Rogers tossed 77.62 at the fifth Irena Szewinska Memorial in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Rogers raised her Canadian record to 78.62 on May 26, winning a gold medal at the USA Track and Field Los Angeles Grand Prix. Her previous best was 77.84, set April 15 at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.
Rogers will compete next in Kuortane, Finland.
WATCH l Rogers can't stop breaking records | Athletics North:
Brooke Andersen of Vista, Calif, picked up her sixth victory in seven outings this season with a 76.45 throw and stadium record on her second try.
However, the 27-year-old world champion was far from satisfied with her throws as she recorded only two marks on six attempts (74.51 on the other).
"It's not what I hoped for or expected," Andersen said in a story posted to the World Athletics website. "I was just getting ahead of the hammer a little bit and started pulling instead of working with.
"They're easy fixes, but I've just got to do it consistently."
Finland's Silja Kosonen took third (72.56) while Jillian Weir of Kingston, Ont., threw 66.26 on her third try to place eighth in the field of 10.
The 2022 Canadian silver medallists and 2020 Olympian was coming off a 67.49 season best at Copenhagen Athletics Games in Denmark on June 7.
Gay 7th in men's steeplechase
Weir, 30, was fifth (72.41) in the women's hammer final at the World Athletics Championships last July in Eugene, Ore., and third the next month at the Commonwealth Games and NACAC Championships.
Also competing Tuesday in Finland was runner John Gay of Kelowna, B.C., and London, Ont., pole vaulter Alysha Newman.
The 26-year-old Gay was seventh of 14 finishers in the men's 3,000-metre steeplechase, clocking eight minutes 27.77 seconds. It was about five seconds off his 8:22.51 fourth-place effort at the L.A. Grand Prix.
"Not my night tonight, but an incredible atmosphere nonetheless," the 2020 Olympian, who is ranked 24th in the world, wrote in an Instagram story.
Gay, who won his first Vancouver Sun Run 10K in April, is still seeking the 8:15 automatic entry standard for Aug. 19-27 world championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Ethiopia's Abrham Sime won Tuesday's race in 8:17.44 but said he could run faster.
WATCH | Full coverage of Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland:
Meanwhile Newman, the Canadian record holder, no-heighted in the women's pole vault. She entered the competition at 4.46 metres and missed all three of her attempts after clearing the height last Friday in Diamond League action at the Meeting de Paris.
Newman set the national mark of 4.82 in France at the 2019 event and has a season best of 4.61.
She returned to the Diamond League circuit at the season opener on May 5 in Doha, Qatar, the 28-year-old's first event on the professional circuit since May 2021 after a lingering concussion suffered the previous month and stress fracture in her left heel prematurely ended Newman's 2022 season.
Kenyan government rewards world's best
Distance runner Faith Kipyegon was given $35,000 US and a house by Kenyan President William Ruto on Tuesday as a reward for breaking two world records in the space of a week.
Kipyegon, who met with Ruto at the president's office, said she would now fulfil a promise she had made to buy her father a new car.
The 29-year-old Kipyegon, a two-time Olympic champion in the 1,500, set a new world record in Florence, Italy, on June 2 when she broke the eight-year-old mark set by Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia. Kipyegon became the first woman to go under three minutes 50 seconds with her 3:49.11.
She broke the 5,000 record last week in Paris, clocking 14:05.20 to beat former world record-holder Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia.
WATCH | Kipyegon shatters women's 5,000m world record:
"Faith has made Kenya incredibly proud," Ruto said. "She stands as a shining model of consistency, discipline, hard work, as well as family. Faith is a great Kenyan woman — a mother, a wife and a world champion rolled into one."
Ruto pledged the Kenyan government will also give similar rewards to future world-record breakers.
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