Canadians grabbed a share of the track and field spotlight Tuesday, with hammer thrower Camryn Rogers and middle-distance runner Gabriela DeBues-Stafford winning their competitions at the 68th Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland.
Rogers, the reigning world and Olympic champion, wasn’t at her best but victorious with a throw of 74.59 metres on the fifth of her six attempts. She also fouled three times.
“I feel good. There is still some technical [adjustments] to work on from today,” Rogers said.
“The Paavo Nurmi Games is one of my favourite meets. I love to compete here, the crowd is crazy, they are so passionate and everyone loves hammer. So coming here is a huge privilege.”
Hometown favourite Silja Kosonen was second (73.21) at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet.
“Silja and [Finnish teammate] Krista [Tervo who was ninth Tuesday] are amazing. It is always so much fun to compete with both of them,” said Rogers.
“It’s such a special time to be a hammer thrower, especially for women. I mean, we have many of the top 10 of all-time competing now and they are so supportive. We are a very close community.”
WATCH | Rogers captures her 3rd of 4 hammer throw wins this season Tuesday in Finland:
B.C.’s Camryn Rogers places 1st in women’s hammer throw competition in Turku
Rogers will stay in Finland and compete at the 86th Kuortane Games on Saturday before returning home to prepare for the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League event on July 5 in Eugene, Ore.
The 26-year-old has a best throw of 78.14 this season and 78.62 personal best, a Canadian record.
The Richmond, B.C., native has won two of her other three events this season and was second at the Trond Mohn Games on June 3 in Norway.
Rogers won an Olympic gold medal last Aug. 6 in Paris and captured her first world championship title in 2023. The only Canadian woman to medal at the event in hammer throw also earned 2022 silver.
DeBues-Stafford, 29, has regained her winning form early in the outdoor campaign following three injury-marred seasons.
The Toronto native captured the women’s 1,500 metres in Finland for her second straight win in the distance to start the season.
DeBues-Stafford reached the finish line in four minutes two seconds, her fastest race in over three years since going 3:58.62 at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meet on May 28, 2022.
“I think there is more time [to be shaved] in the future,” DeBues-Stafford said after the race, in a text message to CBC Sports. “It was quite windy when we started [with] gusts of 40 kilometres per hour [but] the stadium blocked the worst of it.”
She fell just shy of the 4:01.50 automatic qualifying standard for the Sept. 13-21 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, and will try to lower her time on Sunday at the Troyes International Athletics Meeting in Aube, France.
DeBues-Stafford also took nearly two seconds off her 4:03.81 effort from three weeks ago in Belgium. She had a 2024 season best of 4:15.09.
WATCH | Full replay coverage of Paavo Nurmi Games from Turku:
World Athletics Continental Tour Turku
On June 7, DeBues-Stafford met the 14:50 world standard in the 5,000, going 14:47.83 at the FAST5000 competition in Maisons-Laffitte, France.
She wants to qualify in both events for the world championships.
“I like the 1,500 a lot more than the 5,000,” DeBues-Stafford said, “but with my injuries I was really struggling to do the speed work. But I needed to do it to improve in the 5000.”
She entered this season having spent much of the past three years dealing with stress fractures and troubles with her sacroiliac (SI) joint, which link the pelvis and lower spine.
DeBues-Stafford, who was fifth in the 2021 Olympic final in Tokyo, is also scheduled to race the 1,500 on July 4 at the Stanislas Nancy competition in Tomblaine, France.
In the 2019 world final, the two-time Olympian ran 3:56.12 for one of her seven national indoor and outdoor records.
In the women’s 100 on Tuesday, Audrey Leduc of Gatineau, Que., placed fourth in 11.16 seconds, 5-100ths of a second faster than her heat performance.
New Zealand’s Zoe Hobbs, who topped all runners in the heats with an 11.09 clocking, went 11.07 to capture the final over Hungary’s Boglárka Takács (11.11).
Leduc, 26, ran a Canadian record 10.95 to win her Olympic heat last summer before helping Canada’s women’s 100m relay team to gold last month at the World Relays in Guangzhou, China.
WATCH | Leduc 4th in women’s 100m, 9-100ths of a second behind winner Hobbs:
New Zealand’s Zoe Hobbs wins women’s 100m race in Turku
In the men’s 100 final, Jerome Blake of Kelowna delivered a 10.09 SB for second in his fourth race of the season, while fellow Canadian Andre De Grasse was sixth (10.23).
Blake, 29, won the first of two heats in 10.19 over South Africa’s Benji Richardson, who was second in the final in 10.09, 1-100th behind Romell Glave of Great Britain.
Blake was a member of the Canadian men’s 100m relay squad, along with De Grasse, that won 2024 Olympic gold.
WATCH | Blake runs season-best 10.18 seconds in men’s 100m at Paavo Nurmi Games:
B.C.’s Jerome Blake narrowly falls to Great Britain’s Romell Glave in men’s 100m final in Turku
Other Canadian results:
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