Ouellet fourth in men’s 5,000-metre finals on Day 8 of the 2019 WPA Championships

''I’m pretty happy with how the season went.”

Story by Athletics Canada

DUBAI - Guillaume Ouellet gave it his all in the men’s 5,000-metre T13 final on Day 8 of the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships. Leading the pack for the majority of the race, the 2015 champion in the event left it all on the track as he crossed the finish line with a season’s best time of 14:45.63, just shy of the podium in fourth place.

On his race, the 2019 Pan American gold medalist saw his opportunity early on in the race.

“The race went out pretty slow, we had close to 3 minutes per km so not too fast,” said Ouellet. “At three-kilometres, I knew we would have a fast last kilometre. I tried to match the speed from Jaryd Clifford of Australia but couldn’t, finishing in fourth. If I’m looking at the big picture, I’m pretty happy with how the season went.”

In the first final of the day, Martha Gustafson entered the discus circle in the women’s discus F53 final. With a first throw of 8.15 metres, Gustafson would increase her mark with every throw, eventually taking her fifth throw of 8.58 to finish in seventh place at the end of competition.

The duo Austin Smeenk and Lee Leclerc were back on the track for the qualifying round of the men’s 800-metre T34 competition. Racing to a fourth place finish in heat one, Smeenk will move onto the final tomorrow after clocking 1:47.84. Leclerc wrapped up his first World Para Athletics Championships in heat two with a time of 1:54.82.

The Canadian universal 4x100-metre team put on a strong showing on the track. Consisting of Austin Ingram, Marissa Papaconstantinou, Zachary Gingras, and Jessica Frotten, the Canadian squad completed the relay in 50.38, finishing fifth overall, one spot shy of the final.

The final day of the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships get underway tomorrow. Four finals are on the schedule as Greg Stewart (shot put F46), Sarah Mickey (discus F55), Ausitn Smeenk (800-metres T34), Nathan Riech and Liam Stanley (1500-metres T38) wrap up the Championships for Canada from Dubai, UAE.

The World Para Athletics Championships are the largest Para sport event to be held before the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and run from November 7 to 15 in Dubai. More than 1,400 athletes from almost 120 nations are competing. 

Viewers will be able to follow the action via the free CBC Gem streaming service, cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices, and CPC Facebook page, as well as the Radio-Canada Sports app and radio-canada.ca/sports.

For the broadcast schedule, please visit Paralympic.ca/Paralympic-Super-Series