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It’s a long shot, but Canada has a chance to win its second medal of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon tonight. Meanwhile, two other Canadian contenders will try to advance to the finals of their events. Here’s what to watch when Day 7 action at Hayward Field gets underway at 8 p.m. ET:
Aaron Brown in the men’s 200m final (10:50 p.m. ET)
Olympic champion Andre De Grasse’s decision to withdraw from this event after failing to qualify for the 100m final robbed Canada of one of its best medal chances of the meet. It would be stunning if Brown makes the podium, but hats off to him for reaching the 200m final for the third consecutive time at a major championship. The 30-year-old Canadian champion placed sixth at both the 2019 worlds and last summer’s Olympics.
All eyes tonight will be on Americans Noah Lyles and Erriyon Knighton, budding rivals who ran the two fastest overall times in both the heats and semifinals. Lyles, 25, is the defending world champ and took bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. Knighton is an 18-year-old phenom who placed fourth in Tokyo and earlier this year ran a world-leading 19.49 seconds to overtake Lyles as the fourth-fastest 200m runner of all time, behind Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Michael Johnson.
Also lining up tonight is American Kenny Bednarek, who took silver in Tokyo and gives the U.S. a good chance of sweeping the medals here. 100m champ Fred Kerley’s hopes of winning a world-championship double were dashed when the American failed to advance past the semifinals.
The women’s 200m final goes right before the men’s, at 10:35 p.m. ET. The Jamaican trio of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah are eyeing another podium sweep after taking all three medals in the 100m (in that order). But they’ll have to knock off defending champ Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain, and American Tamara Clark is another potential spoiler.
Moh Ahmed in the men’s 5,000m heats (9:10 p.m. ET)
Canada’s best distance runner, who’s in the second of the two heats, is going for his third consecutive major-championship medal in the 5,000m after winning bronze at the 2019 world championships in Doha and silver at the Tokyo Olympics. The latter was the first medal by a Canadian in an Olympic long-distance track event. Last weekend, Ahmed placed sixth in the 10,000m, repeating his results from the 2021 Olympics and the 2019 worlds in the longer race.
Another Canadian, Charles Philibert-Thiboutot, will run in the first heat. Back in April, he broke a 36-year-old Canadian record by running a 5K road race in 13 minutes, 35 seconds. The 31-year-old was eliminated in the semifinals of the men’s 1,500m last weekend.
The 5,000m final goes Sunday night. Read more about Ahmed here.
Marco Arop in the men’s 800m semifinals (10 p.m. ET)
The talented 23-year-old looks poised to contend for his first major-championship medal after running the fastest overall time (1:44.56) in last night’s opening-round heats. Arop placed seventh in the 800m final as a worlds rookie in 2019 before turning pro, and he’s won three times on the Diamond League circuit over the last two seasons. That includes a victory over Olympic champion Emmanuel Korir and silver medallist Ferguson Rotich last year on this very same track in Oregon. But, a few weeks before that in Tokyo, Arop fizzled to a seventh-place finish in his Olympic semifinal race after winning his opening-round heat.
Arop is a big guy — at 6-foot-4 and 170-plus pounds, he towers over many of his competitors. Some have questioned whether that powerful frame is more suited to the Diamond League’s one-off races than the gruelling three-round format of the Olympics and world championships. Perhaps we’ll get an answer tonight when he runs in the third of three heats. Read more about Arop in this story by CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux, who ran an impressive 2:37 in the 800m race for media members today at Hayward Field.
Other stuff to know:
*Though none are considered medal contenders, three Canadians are in the women’s 800m heats, starting at 8:10 p.m. ET: Lindsey Butterworth (heat 1), Addy Townsend (heat 4) and Maddy Kelly (heat 5). Read more about Butterworth and Townsend in this story by CBC Sports’ Doug Harrison.
*Canada’s Liz Gleadle advanced to the women’s javelin final by launching the seventh-best throw overall in qualifying last night (60.38m). The medal round goes Friday night.
How to watch:
CBC Sports’ exclusive live coverage of the world championships is on now and continues every day through the conclusion of the meet on Sunday. Events are being shown live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and the free CBC Gem streaming service, and there will be weekend broadcasts on the CBC TV network. Check the full streaming and broadcast schedule here for details.
CBC Gem is also carrying a live daily primetime show focusing on coverage of the day’s events with broadcasters Andi Petrillo, Mark Lee, Kate Van Buskirk, Michael Smith and Scott Russell trackside. It’s preceded by a daily 30-minute digital show hosted by Olympian Anastasia Bucsis with reporting from Devin Heroux, who’s on the ground in Eugene. That show is available on CBC Gem, CBCSports.ca and the CBC Olympics Twitter, Facebook and YouTube feeds.
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