Maddy Price and Grace Konrad took the opportunity to warm up the Chile track Monday evening, with both earning a spot in the women’s 400 metre final.
Price, the Canadian team captain, booked her spot in the spotlight race by earning the fastest small-q qualification spot when her time of 52.70 seconds was good for 4th place in her semifinal.
“I’m just happy to be in the final. I know what I need to work on,” Price said. “It’s always an honour wearing the Canadian flag. Now I just need to get out more aggressive, work down the back stretch and be in a better position coming off the 300 into the final.”
Konrad was 2nd in her semifinal to secure the big-Q qualification in a time of 53.64 seconds.
“I was definitely not happy with my time, but excited for Wednesday and have another chance to run and that Maddy’s going to be in the final with me,” Konrad said.
“Both Grace and I in the final is great,” Price said. “Two Canadians in a final is always incredible so we’re just going to race our hearts out and hopefully take home two medals for Canada.
Brandon Letts and Norris Spike did not advance in their men’s 100 metre semifinals, both posting near identical times of 10.51. When measured to the nearest thousandth of a second, Letts squeaked ahead of his teammate with a time of 10.502 seconds, edging out Norris’s time of 10.507 seconds.
“It was a little cold, unexpectedly. I did the best that I could with the circumstances. I felt a calf cramp right before I started, but I don’t make any excuses,” Letts said about his 10th place finish in the semis. “I tried my best. I lined up with the best of them and today wasn’t my day, but we look forward to the future and we keep going.”
“I feel like I came up just a bit short. Overall, I’m happy with my competition. It’s been a long season. I’m happy to be here – happy to represent my country. I’m glad I had the opportunity to be here and I’ll be back.”
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