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 customary on the upcoming second cease of the Diamond League season in Shanghai on Saturday.
Yee goals to change 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 Canadian feminine athlete to attain this thus far is Malindi Elmore within the marathon.)
To inch nearer to Paris, Yee should run beneath 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, together with her nationwide report of 9:22.40, set through the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Whereas striving for the usual stays Yee’s major objective in Shanghai, she emphasizes the priceless expertise she’ll acquire from competing towards the world’s high athletes within the occasion (similar to world report holder and 2019 world champion Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya). “No matter whether or not I obtain the usual right here, I consider these early Diamond Leagues might be useful later within the season,” says Yee. “Racing towards the world’s greatest and studying to carry out beneath 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 customary. “It’s the target for many of us,” says Yee. “So having a gaggle to pursue it with might be useful.”
The ladies’s 3,000m steeplechase occasion is at present at its pinnacle in Canada. The 28-year-old has change 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 fending off a surge of younger stars desirous 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 instances in historical past and reveals no indicators of slowing down.
“Having such a deep girls’s area in Canada is actually thrilling to see,” says Yee. “There’s 4 girls I feel inside (or near) the qualifying customary and solely three of us could make the workforce. However you may’t deal with anybody however your self.”
Yee might be one among two Canadian athletes at Saturday’s Shanghai Diamond League trying to construct on robust season-opening performances. Nova Scotia’s Sarah Mitton, who broke the Canadian shot put report (twice) en path to successful gold on the World Athletics Indoor Championships final month in Glasgow, was fourth final week in Xiamen, with a greatest 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.
Easy methods to watch
You’ll be able to stream Saturday’s Shanghai Diamond League dwell 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.
