It’s no shock that Canadian sprinter Aaron Brown continues to attempt for extra. He’s already opened up his ninth yr as a professional runner with close to private finest instances within the 100m and 200m, and on Friday, he’ll be one among 4 Canadian athletes on the Florence Diamond League, battling a area of up and coming stars within the males’s 200m.
Brown, who simply celebrated his thirty first birthday, opened his 2023 out of doors season with a 9.97 within the 100m and 20 seconds flat within the 200m. “Working these instances this early within the season is certainly a confidence enhance,” says Brown. “Final yr, I felt I used to be in PR form, however my finest races got here in excessive headwinds or tailwinds.”
Brown’s 2022 season was spectacular. He reached world championship finals within the 100 and 200m, received two nationwide titles and helped Canada to 4×100 relay gold in Eugene. Regardless of successful a world relay medal, he fell in need of his massive objective–successful a person medal on the Olympics or Worlds.
“The large objective has all the time been a person medal at worlds,” says the 31-year-old.”However I’ve a small objective to PR within the 100m and 200m earlier than I run each at Canadian nationals in July.”
Consistency has been a recipe for fulfillment for Brown, and he’s persevering with to depend on it, ready for his onerous work to repay. “I know how I’ve been working in coaching,” Brown says. “I’m assured a PR will come quickly.”
Brown says the primary focus over the previous two seasons has been placing collectively a constant string of races towards the nice competitors when it issues. “The whole lot is working backward from main championships, so I do know my prep must be towards peaking on the proper time–being at my finest when it issues most,” he says.
He’s additionally been including extra 400m-style exercises to his coaching, which helped him run a 400m private better of 45.84 seconds in his season opener. Brown has subtly grow to be one of many veterans at meets, however he’s ranked inside the highest 10 in World Athletics 200m rankings, sitting sixth. On Friday, he would be the oldest sprinter within the area as he takes on a area of up-and-coming 200m sprinters that includes Erriyon Knighton, Joseph Fahnbulleh and Alexander Ogando, who have been all born after the yr 2000.
4 in Florence
Brown might be one among 4 Canadian athletes at Friday’s Florence Diamond League. Canadian 1,500m report holder Gabriela DeBues-Stafford will make her long-awaited return to the circuit after struggling a sacral stress fracture final summer time, which took her out for the whole thing of the 2022 season. She might be within the ladies’s 1,500m and up towards the reigning Olympic gold and silver medallists within the occasion, Kenya’s Religion Kipyegon and Staff GB’s Laura Muir.
Canadian 3,000m steeplechaser Regan Yee of South Hazelton, B.C., will make her second Diamond League look (she made her Diamond League debut on the 2021 Prefontaine Traditional in Eugene, Ore.) Yee might be chasing her private better of 9:27.54 and the 2023 World Championship qualifying normal of 9:23.00.
Final however not least, newly topped Canadian 10K champion Moh Ahmed will race the boys’s 5,000m. Ahmed showcased his health in Ottawa final weekend, throwing down a 2:40/km remaining kilometre to beat Cam Levins by 18 seconds for the 2023 nationwide 10K title. “I knew Ottawa and Florence (Diamond League) was a brief turnaround, however I’m pleased with how issues turned out and excited for the remainder of the season,” stated Ahmed post-race. Ahmed may have his arms full in a loaded 5,000m, which is able to characteristic world report holder Joshua Cheptegei, Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega and Ahmed’s Bowerman Monitor Membership teammate, Grant Fisher.
Find out how to watch
You’ll be able to stream all of the motion from Friday’s Florence Diamond League on-line with CBC Sports activities, beginning at 2 p.m. E.T.
