(Ottawa, ON) – At the 25th annual Cargill Indoor Games in Winnipeg Tyler Christopher of Edmonton broke the Canadian record and set a meet record in the 300-meter race clocking in at a blazing 32.75 seconds. Gary Reed of Victoria, BC narrowly edged out Achraf Tadili of Montréal in the 600-meter race with a time of 1:18.15, six tenths of a second faster than Tadili. Toronto’s Carline Muir won the women’s 300-meter with a time of 38.60. Winnipeg’s Jared MacLeod broke a 13 year old meet record in the 60-meter hurdles with a time 7.77 seconds.
On Friday February 3rd at the 99th Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden, Carmen Douma-Hussar of Cambridge, ON, Courtney Babcock of Chatham, ON and Malindi Elmore of Calgary, AB finished one, two, and three at the women’s 1 mile run. Douma-Hussar finished in a time of 4:35.64, edging out Babcock and Elmore who clocked in at 4:36.0 and 4:36.28 respectively. Kitchener’s Dana Ellis matched her recently-set Canadian record, 4.40 meters, in the pole vault.
On Saturday February 4th it was a photo finish at the 19th Meyo Invitational held at Notre Dame University as Ottawa’s Mike Woods finished the 3,000-meter race with a time of 7:52.27, one tenth of a second ahead of Chepstow, Ontario’s Kurt Benninger’s time of 7:52.28. Ryan McKenzie of Windsor, ON was the third Canadian in the top four finishing fourth with a time of 7:57.36.
Edmonton’s Angela Whyte won three titles at the McDonald’s Invitational in Moscow Idaho. Whyte won the 60-meter dash in 7.40, the 200-meters in 23.78 and finished first in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.09 seconds. Whyte’s times in the 60 and 200-meter races were new personal bests.
At the Governor’s Cup in Samara Russia, Anson Henry of Pickering, ON set a personal best in the 60-meter dash running in a time of 6.59.
These performances bode well for Athletics Canada heading into the Commonwealth Games taking place in Melbourne Australia March 15th to 26th. Christopher, Douma-Hussar, Ellis, Macleod, Reed, and Whyte were identified in November 2005 as potential athletes for the Commonwealth Games team. Babcock, Elmore, Henry, Muir, and Tadili were on the list of athletes to be chosen by Athletics Canada for the final eight spots on the team.
