Wilson-Walker, Roy add to Canada’s top 10 performances at World Para Athletics Championships

Story by Athletics Canada

DUBAI – We are past the halfway point of the 2019 World Para Athletics Champions from Dubai, UAE. The 1500-metres and long jump events took centre stage on Day 5, with Diane Roy racing in the women’s 1500-metres T54 final while the Canadian trio of Alexandre Dupont, Josh Cassidy, and Brent Lakatos raced in the men’s qualifying round. Madison Wilson-Walker got her Championships started in the women’s long jump F64 final.

Qualifying for the final with a time of 3:44.22 last night, Roy came back even faster for the final inside the Dubai Club. Racing hard throughout the race, the native of Notre Dame du Lac stopped the clock at 3:39.73 for a ninth place finish.

Not done with her 2019 Championships yet, Roy will return tomorrow for round one of the women’s 400-metres T54. Asked about how her body feels at the age of 48, Roy says she still enjoys what she does.

“I don’t think it is about the age,” Roy said. “It is more about the body and I still like to do it, like to train. It’s hard, but I still have fun.”

“I have the 400-metres tomorrow morning, which will be difficult to qualify in, but you never know.”

Madison Wilson-Walker stepped onto the runway for the women’s long jump T64 final and added another strong performance for Canada at these World Championships.

With a first jump of 3.21 metres, the Avon, Ontario-native quickly improved her mark to 3.59 metres before concluding her long jump final with a jump of 3.59 metres to finish in 10th place.

Starting the day off, the trio of Dupont, Cassidy and Lakatos returned to the track for round one of the men’s 1500-metres. In Heat one, Dupont clipped the inside of the track, resulting in a collision with Putharet Khongrak of Thailand.

“Alex has road burn and is under our concussion protocol but is otherwise alright,” said team lead Simon Nathan. “Our medical team were able to assist him immediately and we don’t expect any long term issues.”

Josh Cassidy was up next in Heat two, racing to a time of 3:10.79 for seventh place, while Brent Lakatos finished fourth in Heat three with a time of 3:10.12, just missing the final qualifying spot by less than half a second.

“It was all so strategic,” Cassidy said. “I was in a great spot even pushing from the outside lane. I took that gamble of taking that last lap out there and that’s when I lost out.”

An action-packed Day 6 on Tuesday will feature a combination of athletes making their 2019 World Championship debuts in addition to familiar faces on the track.

Ness Murby and Ljilijana Ljubisic start of the day in the women’s discus F11 final before Madison Wilson-Walker lines up in the blocks with Marissa Papaconstantinou in the women’s 100-metres T64 heats. Brent Lakatos and Jessica Frotten continue their Championships in the men’s and women’s 800-metre heats while Diane Roy races in round one of the women’s 400-metre competition.

In the afternoon session, Jenn Brown and Renee Foessel head to the throwing circle for the women’s discus F38 final.

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.