Canada wins 4 gold and 1 bronze at Paris Diamond League
On Saturday, Canada won four gold medals and one bronze at the 12th stop of the IAAF Diamond League in Paris, France.
Brandon McBride claimed victory in the men’s 800m race. With a strong start, McBride was in the lead heading into the last 300m. Coming under pressure down the home straight, he dug deep to hold onto his first place finish. His time of 1:43.78 earned him a season’s best and his first win on the circuit. Joining him on the podium was Wesley Vazquez (1:43.83) of Puerto Rico and Michael Saruni (1:44.41) of Kenya.
Brandon McBride competes in the men’s 800m race at the Paris Diamond League on August 24, 2019 (Photo by: IAAF Diamond League).
In men’s high jump, Michael Mason earned a first place finish, clearing 2.28m. He placed ahead of Andriy Protsenko of Ukraine and Ilya Ivanyuk.
Team Canada also took home gold in the men’s 4x100m relay with a time of 38.26 seconds. The team included of Gavin Smellie, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney, and Aaron Brown. France (38.67) finished in second and Turkey (39.00) rounded out the podium with bronze.
Brown also finished third in the men’s 200m with a time of 20.13 seconds. Noah Lyles of the United States finished first with 19.65 seconds, defeating Usain Bolt’s previously set meeting record of 19.73. Second place went to Ramil Guliyev (20.01) of Turkey.
Read: Brown wins second straight Diamond League 200m race
The best vaulter in Canadian history just got better@alysha_newman94 clears a national record 4.82m 🇨🇦 to win the #ParisDL
📸 @Diamond_League pic.twitter.com/YYr9OVJvwU
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 24, 2019
In women’s athletics, Alysha Newman finished first in pole vault. After clearing 4.75m on her first attempt, she raised the bar again and Newman cleared a national record of 4.82m on her third attempt to win in Paris. Katerina Stefanidi of Greece and Sandi Morris of the United States, both cleared 4.75m to place second and third.
This is the last Diamond League stop before the 2019 finals that will be held in Zurich on August 29, 2019 and Brussels on September 6, 2019.
