Face of Nation : The Toronto native became the first Canadian woman to dip under four minutes on Aug. 29 in the Diamond League final, six weeks after going 4:00.26 to beat Lynn Kanuka’s 33-year-old national mark and set her fifth indoor/outdoor Canadian record of 2019.
Gabriela DeBues-Stafford trimmed nearly four seconds off her Canadian record in the 1,500 metres, clocking three minutes 56.12 seconds to place sixth in the women’s final at the track and field world championships on Saturday.
Starting on the far outside in Lane 8, DeBues-Stafford came out hard and had a short-lived lead in the first lap. The 24-year-old was fourth after 400 metres (1:03.90) and sixth through 800 (2:06.50) but couldn’t close the gap on the leaders despite a fast pace.
“It’s not enough to be the best right now. Being the best right now means you’re one of the best of all-time,” DeBues-Stafford told CBC’s Scott Russell on Thursday. “It’s a ridiculously stacked [event] right now and I’m just excited to be [in] the conversation.
“If you don’t get a medal, the next best thing you can hope for is a personal best and that [3:56] was massive. I’m super-pumped about that and it’s an exciting time to be in the women’s 1,500.”
Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands set a championship record with her 3:51.95 winning time on the track at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar. The 26-year-old U.S.-based runner finished fewer than two seconds shy of Genzebe Dibaba’s 2015 world record of 3:50.07. Dibaba’s didn’t race in Doha due to a foot injury.
Faith Kipyegon set a Kenyan record Saturday, finishing second in 3:54.22, followed by world No. 3 Gudaf Tsegay in 3:54.38. Kipyegon’s winning time in the 2017 final was 4:02.59 at London Stadium.
DeBues-Stafford, who now lives in Scotland and is part of coach Andy Young’s world-class training group, wants to change the mentality among Canadian athletes of being satisfied to make an appearance at worlds or the Olympics. “You want to get here, you want to perform and you want to be in the conversation [as a medal contender]. Canada’s doing really well now and it’s exciting to be part of that.
“I had a conversation with [Canadian distance runner] Moh [Ahmed] leading up to [today’s race] and he said, ‘You’ve had a great season and now it’s just icing [on the cake].’ But you can’t have the cake without the icing, right? The icing’s the best part. I’m excited to be part of this strength in Canadian running right now.”
