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Newsletter By Adam Beauchemin, Jackson Starr, Martin Cleary, Dan Plouffe & Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
Canadian relay fans love Friday nights in Paris; Lauren Gale speeds through to 4×400 relay final
Ottawa had its fingerprints all over an unforgettable night for Canadian track and field at the Stade de France in Paris. Lauren Gale ran the critical leg that launched the Canadian women’s 4×400-metre relay team into its third consecutive Olympic final, Jacqueline Madogo helped the young Canadian women’s 4×100 m relay team to a solid finish, and 1996 Olympic men’s 4×100 m relay champion Glenroy Gilbert guided a new group to Olympic glory 28 years later.
Gale is now one step closer to achieving her pre-Olympic dream of medaling in the relay after securing a spot in the finals.
After battling illness in advance of her individual 400 m event and placing 24th overall, the 24-year-old Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club sprinter was back in fine form for the relay.
Gale ran third for her team, and pulled Canada up from fifth place into the top-3. She posted a 51.04-second split time — the fastest segment for the Canadians in the race, and the second fastest time in her leg of the heat. Canada wound up finishing fourth in its heat, which was outside the top-3 automatic qualifiers, but the solid time of 3:25.77 got the team through to the final with one of the two next-fastest times.
WATCH CBC | Women’s 4×400 m relay final
“It was definitely a little nerve wracking because we didn’t pop up on the screen, but again, we put out the best we could on the track,” Gale said via the Canadian Olympic Committee. “I’m really proud of the girls — we’re always this close to the podium.”
Prior to the Paris Games, Gale told Ottawa Sports Pages reporter Jackson Starr that her goal was to “medal in the 4×4 with our team.”
In 2021 at the Tokyo Summer Games, Gale was named as a member of the 4×400 m relay pool, but was not selected to run as Canada posted its second consecutive Olympic fourth-place finish in the event.
Alongside Zoe Sherar, Aiyanna Stiverne and Kyra Constantine, Gale will be among eight teams competing for a chance to get their hands on a medal in Saturday’s final.
“I’m excited for tomorrow,” Gale underlined.
Encouraging 6th-place showing for Jacqueline Madogo & 4×100 relay team
Jacqueline Madogo finished her Paris Games running in the rain while placing sixth in women’s 4×100 m relay finals.
Madogo took off second for the Canadians and ran a split of 10.34 to help her team to a time of 42.69.
The Ottawa sprinter received the baton from Sade McCreath, and was followed by Marie-Eloise Leclair and Audrey Leduc of Gatineau. The four runners set a national record together yesterday with a time of 42.50 to qualify for the finals.
The Canadians were running on an inside lane that seemed noticeably wetter from the rain than those on the exterior. Still, despite the sub-optimal conditions, no batons were dropped and all teams finished the relay.
Canada was running in eighth place for much of the race, but a stretch run from the team’s anchor Leduc helped push Canada ahead of the Netherlands.
WATCH CBC | Women’s 4×100 m relay final
Madogo entered the Paris Games with only four seasons of competitive sprinting under her belt. The 24-year-old soccer player-turned-runner earned a semi-finals berth in the women’s 200 m after setting back-to-back personal bests.
“This championship has just been incredible,” Madogo told CBC after the race. “Making the finals with the girls is just the cherry on top. It’s always been one of my goals to bring the relay back to where it was, and I’m glad I got to be part of the process.
“I love working with these girls. They’re amazing and I think we have really good friendships on and off the track. It’s been an amazing process. It’s been a hard journey, but we’re here and made the final. That’s all that’s all I ever could have asked for.”
Madogo had a busy schedule at the Paris Games. The relay final was her sixth race of the Olympics, but she was still fully energized watching the men’s 4×100 m relay final, which was the next event on the track after theirs.
The TV cameras spotted Madogo alongside the rest of her relay team after their race enthusiastically cheering on the Canadian men’s team as they won gold.
Coach Glenroy Gilbert ‘very proud’ to see Canadian men earn same crown he won in ’96
The Canadian quartet of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse became the first Canadian team to win the men’s 4×100 m since their coach Glenroy Gilbert of Ottawa did it alongside Robert Esmie, Bruny Surin and Donovan Bailey 28 years ago in Atlanta.
WATCH CBC | Men’s 4×100 m relay final
“I am very proud of these guys,” Gilbert told CBC. “We had a meeting yesterday and what we talked about was simple: ‘How do you want to leave Paris? How do you want to leave the Olympic track here?,’ because there’s no guarantee any of us will be back in four years, so how do you want to leave it?
“Do you want to leave it with a medal or do you want to leave it as just one of the rest of the field? They decided tonight that they wanted to leave it as Olympic champions.”
Gilbert is currently participating in his 11th Olympic Games (five as an athlete, six as a coach). He ran the second leg for Canada’s golden relay run in Atlanta, and now serves as Athletics Canada’s head coach.
“These guys believed in each other,” he underlined. “The plan was just to come out here and go after it, full-tilt, no excuses, leave the track having poured everything out on the track.”
Ottawa’s Eliezer Adjibi, 23, was also part of the relay group, though Canada went with the four runners who’d previously won gold at the 2022 world championships, making the Olympic rookie an alternate.
When Canada won its 2022 world title on U.S. soil (like in 1996), Gilbert was not able to watch the team win in person, having contracted COVID before the meet. This time he was watching near the final bend when Rodney handed off to De Grasse close to the front of the race.
“Being in the stadium, being able to see that, I couldn’t believe what I was watching,” Gilbert smiled.
Canada was a bit of an underdog heading into the relay. None of its athletes had reached the final of the 100 or 200 m, and De Grasse had been bothered by a hamstring injury.
But the Canadians had cleaner exchanges than most of the rivals – especially favoured USA, which was ultimately disqualified for a pass outside of the permitted zone – and the team executed its plan to give De Grasse a longer take-off runway to give him a chance to build up to top speed without quite as sharp of an acceleration.
“We really needed him to get off the mark,” Gilbert explained. “But even in the warm-up today, he looked much better than he did yesterday. He knew this was going to be the run, he knew they were going to need this run from him if they were going to medal, and that’s what happened.”
WATCH CBC | Glenroy Gilbert interview
Ariane Bonhomme drops out of madison
Ottawa Bicycle Club product Ariane Bonhomme also wrapped up her time at the Paris Games today, taking to the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome one final time for the women’s madison track cycling event.
Bonhomme took on the 120-lap, 30 km relay-like event with Canadian teammate Maggie Coles-Lyster.
The pair fell behind the pack early and failed to regain the lost ground on the other teams and wound up dropping out less than halfway through the race after falling behind by two laps.
The event, won by Italy, was not considered a focus of the Canadians. Both Bonhomme and Coles-Lyster also competed with the women’s pursuit team that battled through sickness to earn an eighth place finish.
Natalie Davison wraps up Paris Games with 2 kayak races
Natalie Davison also put a bow on her Paris Olympics experience today as she took to the waters twice in the semi-finals and B final of the women’s kayak double 500 m.
The Rideau Canoe Club paddler teamed with Courtney Stott to finish in the last position of their semi-final race with a time of 1:43.57.
The duo moved on to the B final, where they placed in seventh to rank 15th overall. The pair came out of the gate well and was steady in the middle of the pack for much of the race’s first leg, but eventually lost ground to the rest of the field and finished in 1:46.96.
They previously earned their spot in the semi-final by qualifying fourth by .03 seconds in the quarter-final.
The 32-year-old Davison also raced alongside fellow Rideau paddler Toshka Besharah-Hrebecka in the kayak four 500 m.
Ottawa Olympians in action on August 10:
Preview: Jessica Gaudreault & Lauren Gale Ottawa’s last Olympians in action at Paris 2024
Tomorrow, Jessica Gaudreault will be in the pool minding the net for the Canadian women’s water polo team one final time as they face-off against Greece to determine seventh and eighth place in the tournament.
The Canadians qualified for the knockout stage after securing fourth place in their group, but were eliminated from podium contention in the quarter-finals by Spain.
The Canadians then moved to the 5-8 classification, but lost 10-5 to Italy to bump them to the 7-8 game against Greece.
Greece and Canada each enter tomorrow’s match with one win in the tournament.
And also competing tomorrow of course is runner Lauren Gale in the women’s 4x400m relay, which is the final event on the track for the Paris 2024 athletics programme.
Ottawa Sports Pages Fund campaign
Editor’s note: A big thank you to everyone who’s contributed to our Ottawa Sports Pages Fund donation drive, which we officially launched yesterday.
Our campaign runs until the day after the Olympics close in Paris, so you’ve still got a chance to help us shine in our quest to shine a light on our local amateur athletes!