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Tyler Christopher wins the 400m at World Indoor Championships

Canada sent a small, but powerful team of 8 athletes to the recent World Indoor Athletics Championships in Valencia, Spain, which took place March 7-9. Led by Canadian 2005 World Outdoor Championships 400m bronze medalist, Tyler Christopher and featuring several Olympians, expectations were high and the athletes didn’t disappoint. The meet also featured many outstanding performances from some of the World’s top athletes.

Leduc native, Megan Metcalfe started the meet off on a great note for the Canadian team, running 8:48.56 in the heats of the 3000m to set a new Canadian indoor record. She lowered one of the oldest national records in the book bettering the 8:50.80 ran by Lynn Williams in 1987. Metcalfe won gold at the 2007 Pan American Games in the 5000m event.

Edmonton ’s Tyler Christopher brought home Canada’s only medal of the meet, winning gold in the 400m. Christopher’s World-leading time of 45.67 seconds was also a Canadian indoor record. Although the race didn’t go as planned for Christopher – he was hoping to lead from the outset, but was in third for much of the race – his strength and focus pulled him to victory in the final 40 meters. The victory was the first World Indoor title for a Canadian male since Bruny Surin won the 60 meters in Barcelona, Spain in 1995. Perdita Felicien won the World indoor 60 meter hurdles title in Budapest, Hungary in 2004.

Other events also had impressive showings, including a World indoor record in the women’s 1500m. Yelena Soboleva of Russia ran an incredible 3:57.71 in winning the event and leading the top four women to times under 4 minutes. Tariku Bekele of Ethiopia led an African medal sweep in the men’s 3000m, winning in a relatively slow (for him!) 7:48.23. Tariku Bekele is the younger brother of multiple world record holder, Kenenisa Bekele. For full results of the World Indoor Championships, visit www.iaaf.org.