It’s not just Connor McDavid who is quick on his skates in Edmonton. Audrey Leduc can be too, figuratively.
A few hours before the third game of the Stanley Cup final between the Oilers and the Florida Panthers, the Gatineau sprinter continued her momentum by winning the 100 metres at the Edmonton Invitational on Thursday afternoon.
This time there was no record, but the country’s new sprint star completed the distance in 11.07 sec (0.7), the second time of his career, 0.11 sec behind his national record set on April 20 in Louisiana.
The 25-year-old Quebecer, who seemed to get off to a good start, respectively edged out her fellow Ontarians Jacqueline Madogo (11.14, personal best) and Sade McCreath (11.24) to capture gold on the green track and yellow from Foote Field at the University of Alberta.
Two hours earlier, Leduc set the best time of the two semi-final rounds, stopping the clock at 11.18 despite a wind of -3 m/s. According to a conversion scale, such a time would be equivalent to 10.96 in a context of zero wind, exactly its Canadian mark.
After her participation in the World Indoor Championships in early March in Scotland, Audrey Leduc made rapid progress outdoors, setting a provincial record of 11.08 on her first outdoor outing in Florida on March 30.
She then obliterated the Canadian 100m standard which had stood since 1987, before bringing down the 200m standard, stopping the needle at 22.36 to clinch victory at the Edwin Moses Legends meet in Atlanta on May 31.
She also was a hot third starter at the World Relay Championships in the Bahamas, where Canada earned its spot in the 4X100 for the Paris Olympics. She is an unofficial qualifier for the 100m and 200m individual events. She will have the opportunity to confirm her first Olympic presence at the Montreal Trials, held June 26-30.
A week earlier, Leduc will compete in the Montreal Athletics Classic on June 21 at the Claude-Robillard sports complex.
Other notable Canadian performances in Edmonton: a crushing victory for 800m world champion Marco Arop (1:44.58), who took the liberty of waving to the crowd before cutting the line, and Jazz Shukla’s courageous gold medal , who tried everything to go under two minutes for the second time in the 800m, failing by five hundredths.
Before her competition in the Alberta capital, Leduc took a detour to Calgary, where she received the Lois and Doug Mitchell Award, given to the athlete of the year in Canadian university sport. The representative of the Rouge et Or from Laval University shared the honor with Jonathan Sénécal, quarterback of the Carabins of the University of Montreal.
