After delivering one of many quickest season openers of her profession final weekend on the Xiamen Diamond League in China, Regan Yee, of South Hazelton, B.C., continues her pursuit of the Olympic commonplace on the upcoming second cease of the Diamond League season in Shanghai on Saturday.
Yee goals to turn into solely the second Canadian feminine distance runner (from 800m to the marathon) to fulfill the usual in her occasion on the 2024 Olympics in Paris. (The only real Canadian feminine athlete to realize this up to now is Malindi Elmore within the marathon.)
To inch nearer to Paris, Yee should run underneath 9:23.00 within the 3,000m steeplechase, a mere 1.82 seconds quicker than her private better of 9:24.82. Genevieve Lalonde is the one Canadian runner in historical past who has run quicker, along with her nationwide report of 9:22.40, set in the course of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Whereas striving for the usual stays Yee’s major purpose in Shanghai, she emphasizes the priceless expertise she’ll achieve from competing towards the world’s high athletes within the occasion (reminiscent of world report holder and 2019 world champion Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya). “No matter whether or not I obtain the usual right here, I imagine these early Diamond Leagues might be invaluable later within the season,” says Yee. “Racing towards the world’s finest and studying to carry out underneath strain will assist my efficiency.”
Yee might be one among a dozen athletes within the Shanghai Diamond League girls’s steeplechase area, all of them vying for the Olympic commonplace. “It’s the target for many of us,” says Yee. “So having a bunch to pursue it with might be useful.”
The ladies’s 3,000m steeplechase occasion is at the moment at its pinnacle in Canada. The 28-year-old has turn into one of many veterans within the occasion, representing Canada at three world championships (2019, 2022 and 2023) and one Olympic Video games (Tokyo 2020). She now faces the problem of heading off a surge of younger stars wanting to make their Olympic debut, with defending Canadian XC champion Ceili McCabe main the cost. McCabe, simply 22, boasts three of the quickest 10 Canadian steeple occasions in historical past and reveals no indicators of slowing down.
“Having such a deep girls’s area in Canada is admittedly thrilling to see,” says Yee. “There’s 4 girls I believe inside (or near) the qualifying commonplace and solely three of us could make the staff. However you possibly can’t give attention to anybody however your self.”
Yee might be one among two Canadian athletes at Saturday’s Shanghai Diamond League seeking to construct on sturdy season-opening performances. Nova Scotia’s Sarah Mitton, who broke the Canadian shot put report (twice) en path to profitable gold on the World Athletics Indoor Championships final month in Glasgow, was fourth final week in Xiamen, with a finest throw of 19.35 metres on her second try out of 5. Now, she goals to problem final week’s victor and reigning Olympic shot put champion, Gong Lijiao of China.
The right way to watch
You’ll be able to stream Saturday’s Shanghai Diamond League stay on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports activities App, and CBC Gem. Protection begins at 7 a.m. ET, with Regan Yee within the girls’s 3,000m steeplechase scheduled for 7:28 a.m.
