Canadian women’s 4×400 relay places sixth in Paris

PARIS – Canada’s women’s 4×400-metre relay team is excited for what’s to come after the Paris Olympics.

The Canadians finished sixth in Saturday’s final at Stade de France. The foursome of Zoe Sherar, Savannah Sutherland, Kyra Constantine and Lauren Gale ran a season-best time of three minutes 22.01 seconds.

“Our group’s just getting stronger year over year,” Sherar said. “We’ve shown at our national championship, it’s always super competitive, a super deep field.

“That pushes us to faster times and I think this is a really good sign of momentum going forward. Our group gets stronger every year and we show that in finals. We’re excited for what’s to come.”

Canada’s time was faster than the 3:22.42 they posted to finish fourth at the 2023 World Championships and the 3:25.17 that earned them bronze at the World Relays in May. The Canadians were either fifth or sixth through each leg of the race.

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“Joy,” Constantine said of the post-race emotions. “We got a season’s best, we were close to our national record and we all ran fast.”

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The United States cruised to gold (3:15.27), finishing one-hundredth of a second off the world record. Meanwhile, the Netherlands (3:19.50) and Great Britain (3:19.72) took silver and bronze, respectively.

Canada finished fourth in Heat 2 with a time of 3:25.77 to grab one of two non-automatic qualifying spots on Friday to get into the final.

Canada has only medalled in the event once, a silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. The 1984 team still holds the Canadian record of 3:21.21.

At 26, Constantine is the oldest of the group. Sherar and Gale are both 24, while Sutherland is just 21.

Sutherland, who also raced in the women’s 400 hurdles final on Thursday, is a two-time NCAA medallist in that event competing for the University of Michigan.

“I hope so,” Sutherland said of one day breaking the national record. “I think we have a pretty young team and I think that we continue to get better each time we step on the track and each time we get more experience with each other.

“I know this was my first time running on the 4×400 but I’m looking forward to seeing when we work together a couple more times.”

Canada will have the 2025 world championships in Tokyo to look ahead to build and further show their potential on the world stage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2024.