 Camryn Rogers won Canada's first women's track and field world title in 20 years | | | Camryn Rogers completed a stunning Canadian sweep of the hammer throw gold medals at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest today, winning the women's event with a toss of 77.22 metres on her first attempt.
Rogers, 24, is Canada's first women's track and field world champion since Perdita Felicien won the 100m hurdles in 2003.
Last year, Rogers took silver to become the first Canadian woman to win a world championship medal in a field event. This time, she capitalized on defending champion Brooke Andersen's failure to get through yesterday's qualifying round — a stunning development as the American came in with the five best throws in the world this year. "What an incredible, magical night," Rogers told CBC Sports' Andi Petrillo.
Rogers' victory follows 21-year-old Canadian Ethan Katzberg's surprising gold in the men's hammer event on Sunday. Read about the sudden rise of Canada's throwers in this piece by CBC Sports' Scott Russell.
Other Canadian highlights today:
Andre De Grasse qualified for the men's 200m final.
The reigning Olympic champion got through as the fastest non-automatic qualifier after placing third in a tough heat. De Grasse finished in 20.10 seconds, behind 2022 bronze medallist Erriyon Knighton of the United States (19.98) and European champion Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain (20.02).
American Noah Lyles (19.76) was easily the fastest in the semifinals as he chases his third consecutive 200m world title and looks to complete his first sprint double after winning 100m gold on Sunday. 2022 runner-up Kenny Bednarek of the U.S. (19.96) and 100m silver medallist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana (19.97) were the next fastest overall, followed by Knighton and Hughes.
Canada's Aaron Brown was disqualified for a lane violation after placing third in his heat in 20.19, which would have earned him a wild-card entry in the final. Brendon Rodney also failed to advance after placing fourth in his heat in 20.27.
In a bizarre twist, Jamaica's Andrew Hudson (20.38) was awarded an extra spot in the final after he was involved in a golf-cart collision on the way to the stadium that, he said, sent glass into his eye and caused blurred vision.
De Grasse's best time of the season is 20.01, which won him the Canadian title last month. He'll need to be much faster to contend for a medal in the final on Friday at 3:50 p.m. ET. "I'll try to make some adjustments and see what I can bring," De Grasse said.
The women's final goes 10 minutes earlier, and it'll be a great race too. Defending champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica still looks like the one to beat after cruising to first place in the toughest semifinal heat today. 100m gold medallist Sha'Carri Richardson beat Ivory Coast's Marie-Josée Ta Lou for the other automatic spot out of that heat, though Ta Lou grabbed one of the two wild-card berths in the final.
American Gabby Thomas will also contend for the gold after winning her heat in 21.97 seconds — the best overall time in the semis. The 2021 bronze medallist missed last year's worlds due to injury but defeated Richardson for the 200m title at last month's U.S. championships with a time of 21.60 — the fastest in the world this year.
Canadian running stars Marco Arop and Moh Ahmed easily qualified for their finals.
Arop looks poised to upgrade on last year's bronze medal in the men's 800m after comfortably winning his semifinal heat. The towering 24-year-old won't have to worry about reigning world and Olympic champion Emmanuel Korir in Saturday's final as the banged-up Kenyan failed to get past the opening round.
Ahmed advanced to Sunday's men's 5,000m final by placing third in his heat. A silver medallist in the 5,000 at the 2021 Olympics and bronze winner at the 2019 world championships, Ahmed finished sixth in the 10,000m on Sunday. Canadian road 5K record holder Ben Flanagan did not advance after finishing 11th in his heat.
Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee placed fourth again.
After just missing the podium in Saturday's men's 20km event, Dunfee earned another "chocolate medal" in today's 35km. Two near misses in six days is tough to swallow. But this shows that Dunfee, 32, is still capable of contending for a medal at next year's Olympics, where the race walk has been shortened from his preferred 50km down to 20km. Dunfee took bronze in the now-defunct 50K at the 2021 Olympics and 2019 worlds.
Spain's Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez completed sweeps of the men's and women's events, respectively, adding 35K gold to the 25K titles they won on Saturday. Slovakia's Dominik Cerny and Hana Burzalova didn't win medals, but they're getting rings: Cerny proposed to her at the finish line and she said yes.
What to watch on Friday:
The four finals taking place on Day 7 are the aforementioned women's and men's 200m (3:40 p.m. ET and 3:50 p.m. ET), and the Canadian-less women's triple jump (1:38 p.m. ET) and women's javelin (2:20 p.m. ET).
The decathlon gets started at 4:05 a.m. ET and continues over two days. Canada's Damian Warner is still seeking his first world title after a hamstring injury knocked the Olympic champion out of last year's competition while he was leading. His opponents include fellow Canadian Pierce LePage, who took silver last year for his first major medal and then beat Warner to win the highly regarded Hypo Meeting decathlon in Austria in May. Defending champion and world-record holder Kevin Mayer of France also stands in Warner's way.
Canada's men's 4x100m relay team begins its quest for a second consecutive world title with the heats at 1:30 p.m. ET. The women's 4x100m heats go at 2 p.m. ET.
How to watch:
All events at the world championships, from qualifying rounds through finals, are being streamed live on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBCSports.ca. Friday's coverage runs from 4-7:20 a.m. ET and 12:20-4:15 p.m. ET. See the full streaming schedule here and the official event schedule here.
For daily video recaps, insight and analysis, look for new episodes of Athletics North with host Rob Pizzo every day on the CBC Sports YouTube channel and CBCSports.ca. | | |  | Camryn Rogers won Canada's second hammer throw gold medal of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) | | | Quickly… | | | Some other things to know:
1. Canada's quest for an Olympic men's basketball berth begins tomorrow.
The team's goal at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Asia is simple: earn Canada's first entry in the Olympic men's event since 2000, when a young Steve Nash was the point guard. In order to do that here, Canada must finish among the top two teams from the Americas region. If not, it will have to win a last-chance qualifying tournament next year.
We can probably assume the United States will grab one of the Americas' tickets, even with the likes of Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton serving as the Americans' go-to guys in the absence of Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and other more accomplished NBA stars. But Canada is a prime contender for the other spot with top-five MVP vote-getter Shai Gilgeous-Alexander headlining a roster of mostly NBA players.
The team isn't as strong as it could be. Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins — the other two members of a would-be Canadian "big three" — both elected to skip the World Cup. And Nick Nurse quit as head coach after being fired by the Toronto Raptors, leading to Sacramento Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez taking over. But the NBA standouts joining Gilgeous-Alexander include RJ Barrett, Lu Dort and Dillon Brooks, with veteran big men Kelly Olynyk and Dwight Powell solidifying a front court that includes 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, the reigning NCAA player of the year.
Canada is in Group H, based in Indonesia (the Philippines and Japan are also co-hosting). The Canadians open Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET vs. 2021 Olympic silver medallist France, which is without Victor Wembanyama after the No. 1 NBA draft pick decided to sit out the tournament.
Canada then faces Lebanon on Sunday at 5:45 a.m. ET and Latvia on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. ET. The top two teams advance to the next round. Read more about why the Canadian men's Olympic drought might be about to end in this story by CBC Sports' Myles Dichter.
2. Auston Matthews got paid. Who's next?
The former NHL MVP signed a four-year, $53-million US extension with Toronto yesterday that puts him on track to become the league's highest-paid player in 2024-25, when the deal kicks in. Matthews' average annual salary of $13.25 million surpasses Colorado star Nathan MacKinnon's $12.6 million and three-time MVP Connor McDavid's $12.5 million.
New Toronto GM Brad Treliving can now turn his attention to star forward William Nylander, who's heading into the final year of his contract. Meanwhile, Vancouver Canucks star Elias Pettersson said he's put extension talks "on hold" as he goes into his final year. Read more about the Matthews contract here.
3. Shohei Ohtani won't pitch for the rest of the season, and maybe longer.
The Los Angeles Angels' two-way phenomenon, who leads the majors in home runs while sporting a 10-5 record as a top-notch starting pitcher, has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. That's the same one that required Tommy John surgery in 2018. It's unclear whether the American League MVP front-runner will have to undergo the dreaded operation again, but the Angels announced last night that he's done pitching for the year.
Another Tommy John surgery would keep Ohtani off the mound for all of next season and impact his status as one of the most coveted free agents in baseball history. The 29-year-old from Japan, whose contract expires at the end of this season, was expected to attract offers exceeding $500 million US. That would smash the baseball-record $426.5 million on teammate Mike Trout's current 12-year deal. Read more about Ohtani's injury and the potential ripple effects here.
4. Two big golf tournaments are underway.
The men's Tour Championship teed off today in Atlanta, where FedEx Cup playoff leader and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is the front-runner for the eye-watering $18-million US grand prize. Canadians Corey Conners and Nick Taylor are long shots to win the 30-man event, where players are given a starting score based on their place in the Cup standings. Conners began at 2 under and Taylor at 1 under, well back of Scheffler at 10 under. See an updated leaderboard here.
The Canadian Women's Open began today in Vancouver, where world No. 10 Brooke Henderson is trying to win her country's lone LPGA Tour stop for the second time. Her competition includes top-ranked Lillia Vu of the United States, who won two of the five majors this season. See an updated leaderboard here. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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