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 sprinter from Gatineau continued her momentum by winning the 100 meters at the Edmonton Track and Field Invitational, Thursday after- noon.
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 was also a hot third runner at the World Relay Championships in the Bahamas, where Canada earned its spot in the 4×100 for the Paris Olympics. She is unofficially qualified for the 100 and 200m individual events. She will have the opportunity to confirm her first presence at the Olympics as part of the Montreal Trials, presented from June 26 to 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 made a detour to Calgary, where she received the Lois and Doug Mitchell Award, given to the athlete of the year in Canadian university sports. The representative of the Université Laval Rouge et Or shared the honour with Jonathan Sénécal, quarterback of the Université de Montréal Carabins.
