Strength in numbers: Deep Canadian team ready to step up at World Athletics Championships
- GP Liu
- Sep 10
- 7 min read
Updated: Sep 11
When this year's World Athletics Championships gets underway, a record number of Canadians will be looking to repeat as champions.
But those four athletes – hammer throwers Camryn Rogers and Ethan Katzberg, decathlete Pierce LePage, and 800-metre runner Marco Arop – aren't the only ones expected to challenge for gold in Tokyo.
Canada is sending a total of 59 athletes (30 men and 29 women), its largest-ever contingent to compete at the world championships, and Athletics Canada head coach Glenroy Gilbert believes the team's strength lies in its depth.
"I think we've got a really balanced group of athletes. We've got throws, we've got jumps, multi events, we've got the sprint side, we've got walks," Gilbert said from the Canadian team's training camp in Gifu, Japan. "When you look across all our event groups, I think we're very well represented. And I think that we can certainly expect some good competition from a few of those event groups."
The team features a mix of established veterans and youngsters, but Gilbert wants to see the same thing from each member of the team in Tokyo as the push toward the next Olympic Games begins.
"I'm hoping to see what we call performance-on-demand…which is stepping up and performing when it counts the most, and that's at major championships," he said. "So, [I want] to see some of the newcomers come away with personal bests, seasonal bests, this type of stuff, and possibly getting to semifinals and finals.
"You're looking to see how your veterans are going to perform, but also how some of the newcomers are going to be coming through — and that's how we pretty much gauge performance at least through the pathway between now and L.A. 2028."
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When it comes to performing in high-pressure situations, no one has been as consistently dominant as Rogers and Katzberg. Canada has historically been known as a force on the track, but it's the field events that now feature arguably the biggest hopes of taking world titles this year. The hammer throwers are both coming off Olympic gold-medal wins in Paris, and the team also boats a world champion-calibre shot putter in Sarah Mitton.
Gilbert believes this sudden surge of talent in the throw sports has been enhanced by top-notch training and coaching.
"Well, I think when you look at a person like Sarah, for instance, she's got a great coach in Richard Parkinson, who really does an amazing job around planning and prioritization. And they have a really nice relationship and have been able to build that successfully through the Diamond Leagues," Gilbert said. "[Rogers and Katzberg] are out west, [and] they've got a great throw program out there. Grassroots stuff that has led to some of this.
"Even training with Dylan [Armstrong], a former Olympic medallist himself, and a shot putter, Dylan understands and knows what's required. So I think they're all uniquely positioned with coaches and with training environments that speak to high-performance results."
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Mitton, who won silver at the 2023 worlds, came frustratingly close to repeating as the Diamond League Final champ two weeks ago. The Brooklyn, N.S., native lost the trophy after a successful protest wiped out what had been considered a winning – and season's best – throw of 20.67m.
Gilbert is confident Mitton has already put that disappointment in the rear view mirror and is focused on the task at hand.
"The Diamond League Final, that's over. You've got to be able, in track and field, to have a short memory," he said. "You've got to let it go. And I'm pretty sure between her and Richard, they've talked about it, we've gone through it, they have debriefed the entire thing. It's time to move to the side and focus on winning the world championships.
"The last time around, she was a silver medallist. She's more than capable of winning because she is, as far as I'm concerned, a number one thrower in the world right now [in] women's shot put."
Mitton shrugged off the disappointment at a warm-up event on Sunday, scoring a win with a 19.81m throw at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet in Beijing.
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A historically consistent source of success for the Canadian team is the 4x100m relay. Gilbert is very encouraged by what he saw from Canada's teams this season and is hopeful of podium finishes for both the men's and women's foursomes. That may be par for the course for the highly decorated men's team of Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, and Brendon Rodney, but Gilbert also sees the women's team on the rise.
Live coverage of the World Athletics Championships on CBC Sports begins on Friday, Sept. 12 and runs through the final day of the event in Tokyo on Sunday, Sept. 21. Watch all the action on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem, and click here for the full broadcast details.
Audrey Leduc, Jacqueline Madogo, Sade McCreath and Marie-Éloise Leclair combined to set a new Canadian record of 42.46 seconds at the World Athletics Relays this past May.
"The women, I am really excited about because I do believe they have the pieces to possibly sneak [onto the podium]. It's not going to be easy, and they're going to have to be pretty good … but I believe that they're in a place right now where they can convert," Gilbert said. "It's for us to kind of get them to believe that they're capable of doing it and hopefully be able to do it on the day.
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"Now, can they hold it together under the pressure? That's a different thing altogether. But if we're looking simply at the individual bodies that are on the track and what they're capable of, yeah, I think they can get there."
Gilbert believes that the veteran men's 4x100m team — who are the reigning Olympic champions and won a world title together in 2022 — has another world-title performance in them, but everything needs to line up on race day.
"As long as the guys stick to the fundamentals and they really kind of like gel the way they've been gelling," he said. "I think that they can make the final. I think they can win a medal. I think they can win it. It's not going to be easy, but it's never easy with a 4x100, right?
"So as long as everybody kind of comes together when it's time to run, I mean, last year at the Olympics, none of them made a final in an open event, but then they stepped on the track and delivered an Olympic gold medal. So, my hope was that they continue like that."
Next wave of stars ready to shine
Gilbert said Tokyo should also help identify which next generation athletes to keep an eye on ahead of the next Summer Games, which already includes Christopher Morales Williams and Savannah Sutherland.
Morales Williams, a 21-year-old from Maple, Ont., set the Canadian men's record in the 400m (44.05) in May of 2024 and is in his first full pro season.
Sutherland, a 23-year-old from Borden, Sask., ended her collegiate career with a bang, setting a new Canadian record as well as NCAA record in the women's 400m hurdles (52.46) in June. The latter mark had been previously held by American superstar Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who holds the world record in the discipline.
"Honestly, [I'm] trying to keep my expectations low. [The] first thing is to make the final like I did last year," Sutherland told CBC Sports in July. "It's a super competitive event right now and I feel like anything can happen, especially when there's hurdles involved. So I'm just kind of trying to keep my head on straight and hopefully finish higher than I did last year.
"Just as long as I'm making forward progress, I think that's enough for me."
Both Morales Williams and Sutherland represent a bright future for Canadian track, Gilbert said, and these world championships are a perfect place for them to make a statement on the world stage.
"[Morales Williams's] meteoric rise to where he is has been unprecedented, similar to Savannah. I was at NCAAs this year, and I watched her break Sydney [McLaughlin-Levrone]'s record. It was insane to witness and she made it look so easy. As far as I'm concerned, these are definitely two of the future athletes of Canadian track and field," Gilbert said. "I think the world championships are going to give them an opportunity to showcase [that].
"Ultimately, I think they're thinking about obviously making a final and threatening, hopefully, to get on the podium. That's what this is all about."
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