Olympic bronze medallist Grant Fisher might have stolen the show at this weekend’s Boston Valentine Invitational with his second world record in six days, but Canadian athletes also etched their names in history. In Seattle, Olympian Kieran Lumb clocked the fastest indoor mile in Canadian history. In Boston, rising star Rachel Forsyth shattered the North American U20 3,000m record and in Ottawa, high-school phenom William Batley set a new national U20 300m mark.
Fisher’s 5,000m world record
Talk about a good week. Six days after setting the indoor 3,000m world record, Fisher bounced right back to add the 5,000m record to his resume as well. On Friday in Boston, he clocked 12:44.09, taking five seconds off the 21-year-old record of 12:49.60 held by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele.
“My goal was to break the world record today,” Fisher said in a post-race interview. “After last week, I knew it was possible. But it’s a risky take–when you start talking about world records or American records, it sometimes feels like, accomplish that or it’s a bust. If I ran the American record today, but not the world record, it would’ve felt like a bust.”
Kieran Lumb
At Saturday’s Washington Husky Classic in Seattle, Vancouver’s Lumb rose to the top of the Canadian rankings, taking third in the mile with a blazing 3:51.89–his fastest mile in nearly two years. Lumb’s time surpasses Cameron Proceviat‘s national record of 3:52.54 and falls less than 1.5 seconds short of the Indoor World Championship standard. The performance marks his third Canadian record; he claimed both the 3,000m indoor and outdoor records in 2023.
Forsyth reaches new heights over 3,000m
On Saturday, the Valentine Invitational saw the Michigan State’s Forsyth set her first North American record, running 8:53.50 to break American pro runner Katelyn Tuohy‘s record of 8:54.18 set in 2021. The performance improves Forsyth’s own Canadian U20 record by nearly six seconds and marks the seventh-best time in the world this year.
The run also marks Forsyth’s second national record in two weeks. On Feb. 1 at Notre Dame’s Meyo Invitational, the 18-year-old ran the third-fastest mile in the world this year, clocking 4:34.02 to smash Paige Marchant‘s national record of 4:38.91.
Forsyth’s 3,000m run is the second-fastest U23 and 13th-fastest all-time Canadian performance.
Batley runs second-fastest time in the world
At the Ravens Last Chance meet in Ottawa on Saturday, Batley’s 32.91 300m run landed him at #2 in the world this year in the U20 division. The Ottawa native clocked the fastest 300m in U20 national history and became the first Canadian high-schooler Canadian to break 33 seconds, smashing Olympian Christopher Morales Williams’s record of 33.23. Batley now sits in fourth on the Canadian all-time list.
Stafford and Gale challenge Canadian records
Two-time Olympian Lucia Stafford opened her season with a mile win at the Valentine Invitational, clocking a personal best of 4:21.74 and achieving the indoor world standard of 4:22.50. Stafford’s run marks the third-fastest time in the world this year, and is #2 in Canadian history, second to her sister, Gabriela Stafford.
At the Ravens Last Chance meet, Olympic sprinter Lauren Gale matched her own Canadian 300m record of 36.48, which she set at the same meet last year. Her performance also ties for the fourth-fastest time in the world this year.
