“It feels awesome.” That’s how sprinter Lauren Gale described the experience of running in her first World Athletics Championship. The 22-year-old sprinter placed fifth in her heat of the 400 metres in a time of 52.46 second, missing out on one of the three automatic qualifying spots.
“I haven’t run at Oregon on this track yet, so to break it in at a World Championship is just an amazing feeling,” explained Gale following her heat. The recent Colorado State University graduate had expected to get her first taste of the Hayward magic last month at the NCAA Championships, but her collegiate season was cut short by a case of COVID which forced her to withdraw from the West Regional Preliminaries.
Gale pushed the pace for the first 200, splitting 24.5 at the halfway mark and finding herself in a tight battle for second place. However, as the field entered the home stretch, the field had caught up and eventually passed her as she shifted back to fifth.
There is still more to come from Gale this championship as she lines in heat five of the 200 metre preliminaries tonight at 9:28pm eastern. You can catch all the action live on CBC.