HIGH ACHIEVERS: Sprinting on 2 sprained ankles, George Quarcoo wins Commonwealth Games bronze with guide Segun Makinde

By Martin Cleary

Mission accomplished … even with two sprained ankles.

It took eight years, but visually-impaired sprinter George Quarcoo of Bowmanville, ON’s Eclipse Track and Field used his sheer determination to achieve a highly-rewarding performance at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland on Thursday, which made amends for his Games debut in 2018, when he couldn’t finish his 100-metre race because of a leg quad injury.

Quarcoo and guide Segun Makinde of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club boldly and confidently overcame his latest double health issue to not only complete the T11-12 men’s 100-metre final in a personal-best time, but also be rewarded with the bronze medal.

The wind blew a tad over the allowable 2.0 metres per second in his 11.06-second dash as it registered at 2.1 metres per second, preventing him from having the fastest legal time of his career. His best-ever legal time is 11.14 seconds, but Quarcoo’s time of 11.06 seconds is his fastest, all-conditions time.

As the field of four sprinters headed to the finish line in the final, it appeared Quarcoo and Makinde would win the silver medal. But South Africa’s Masala Makatu used his final few steps to catch the only guided team and earn the silver medal at 11.04 seconds.

The other three athletes in the final were classified as T12 runners with some vision, while Quarcoo is a T11 runner has no vision. The classes were combined for Commonwealth competition as Quarcoo was the lone T11 athlete in the seven-man competition.

England’s Zachary Shaw dominated the race with an unmatched time of 10.89 seconds. He was the silver medallist at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and won silver and bronze medals at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

Shortly after the end of the race, Shaw removed his bib number, turned it around and paid tribute to his mother with this message: Gold for you Mom.

“It has been a journey,” the Ghana-born Quarcoo said in a phone interview with High Achievers. “It has been a long time since my first Commonwealth Games, representing Canada, eight years.

“I had one mission. When I heard the announcement I would represent Canada (again at the Commonwealth Games), I had a mission to accomplish. I had to handle business, get to the final and execute my race.”

But running faster than he has ever run before and earning a berth on the medal podium didn’t come easy for 31-year-old Quarcoo.

In a training session before his men’s T11-12 classification heat on Wednesday, he sprained his left ankle. But the work of the Canadian medical support staff and Quarcoo’s determination also guided him through both his races.

During the men’s T11-12 100-metre final on Thursday, Quarcoo sprained his right ankle at the 70-metre mark and he willed himself through the finish line.

“I sprained an ankle in the middle of the race. I felt a little twinge at about 70 metres and I couldn’t stop,” Quarcoo added. “Segun was right beside me (on his left) and said: ‘keep it going, keep it going.’ That was my motivation to get to the line.

“A couple of days before, I was training and I sprained my left ankle. I’m a broken car. But the (medical) team worked on me, patched me up and I ran a good race.”

The result of the four-athlete final has inspired Quarcoo to push harder to run under 11 seconds.

“I still can’t believe it, a bronze medal,” Quarcoo said not once, but twice. “It reminds me there’s a lot of work to do. Every time I’ll look at this medal it will be my motivation to make me work harder for the gold medal.”

Makinde, a two-time Olympian who has worked as Quarcoo’s guide for a little more than a year, was equally thrilled for his running teammate.

“It’s incredible,” he praised. “It’s a bit of redemption from 2018. I’m happy to help him achieve his goals. It has been many years in the making.”

LAUREN GALE OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO REACH COMMONWEALTH GAMES 400-METRE FINAL

The ‘long sprint’ known as the 400 metres is one of the most gruelling and punishing races on the athletics meet schedule.

The one-lap sprint, previously recognized as the quarter-mile race over 440 yards, demands raw and steady speed from start to finish, precise pacing over four corners and two straightaways, and the ability to absorb increasing, short-term pain.

The 400-metre sprint is Lauren Gale’s signature race. It’s her bread and butter. She loves challenging her physical and mental talents for the sake of a top three result and/or a breakthrough time.

On Thursday, the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club athlete confronted the women’s 400 metres once again, but this time it was during her debut Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

After winning her heat on Tuesday in 51.59 seconds, Gale entered the middle test of her scheduled three-race track assignment on Thursday – the semifinals. There were three semi races and the top two racers in each one automatically advanced to the eight-sprinter final on Saturday.

The other two lanes for the final would be filled by the next two fastest sprinters.

The 400-metre race is gruelling enough for Gale and her peers, but there were two things waiting for her that she hadn’t taken into account.

When she walked out onto the track and was settling into her lane and starting blocks, she was surprised by the strength of the wind as it was blowing rather stiffly at 35 to 38 kilometres an hour.

The other unexpected worry for Gale came after she placed fourth in her heat in 52.05 seconds and had to sit on ‘the hot seat’ until after the third and final heat was finished, which would determine if she would advance to the final based on her time.

In the end, Gale followed her solid game plan around the track, adequately dealt with the winds and stood up from the hot seat with a smile on her face to earn a berth in the women’s 400-metre final.

“It went well,” Gale told High Achievers in a phone interview about staying alive in her only track race. “But it was very, very windy. I haven’t run in winds like that for a very long time.

“I executed my race plan, if the wind hit me or not. Everyone ran in the same conditions.”

World No. 2-ranked Dejanea Oakley of Jamaica won the middle semi in 51.18 seconds, while defending Commonwealth Games champion Sada Williams of Barbados was second in 51.85. Scotland’s Nicole Yeargin outran Gale down the final stretch for third place in 51.98 seconds.

After Yeargin and Gale finished their race, they had the fastest two times for the seventh and eighth berths in the final. All they had to do was wait to see if their times would stand up, after the third and final semi.

“It was intense,” she added about sitting trackside and chatting and laughing with Yeargin. “I was literally on the edge of my seat. I hadn’t been on the hot seat before. It was a new experience.

“I really just wanted to lie down and rest. But we had a chat and she (Yeargin) was nice.”

Yeargin and Gale will be back again shoulder to shoulder for Saturday’s high noon final (12:20 p.m. actually in Glasgow) running in lanes one and two respectively. There will be two World Athletics-ranked top 10 sprinters in the final – No. 2 Oakley and No. 7 Ella Onojuvwevwo of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Audrey Leduc’s final drive for a medal in the women’s sprints abruptly ended Thursday in the semifinals of the 200 metres.

Running in the third and last semifinal and needing to place in the top two or have a faster finishing time than 22.81 seconds, the Gatineau sprinter couldn’t put a check beside either of those two goals.

Instead, the 2026 Canadian women’s senior 100- and 200-metre gold-medallist from the national championships in Ottawa finished a distant third in 22.98 seconds.

After placing sixth in the women’s 100-metre final and not advancing to the 200-metre medal race, Leduc will now focus on the women’s 4×100-metre relay on Saturday.