Athletics Canada is pleased to reveal the name of five athletes selected to represent the country at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, which will take place from August 19 to 27.

The first five athletes named to the team include the two fastest female marathoners in Canadian history (Natasha Wodak and Malindi Elmore) as well as Cameron Levins, Mohammed Ahmed and Evan Dunfee; the men's Canadian record holders in the marathon, 10,000m and 35k race walk, respectively.

At last year's World Athletics Championships in Oregon, Levins set a new Canadian record of 2:07:09 in the marathon and finished fourth, Dunfee was sixth in a North American record time of 2:25:02, and Ahmed finished fifth in the 5,000m and sixth in the 10,000m.

Wodak and Elmore, meanwhile, have enjoyed outstanding years in the marathon, with Wodak setting a new Canadian record of 2:23:12 in Berlin last September, and Elmore posting her second-best marathon time of 2:25:14 en route to a national title at the 2022 Canadian Marathon Championships in Toronto in October.

These five athletes were named to the team before athletes of other events because the first selection meeting for the marathon, 10,000m and 35k race walk took place in early February. More marathon, 35k race walk and 10,000m athletes could be named to the team in June as part of subsequent selection meetings, and final selection for all events happens on August 3.

All selections are conditional upon athletes meeting the Canadian Championships requirement (see Section 12.k of the selection criteria) by July 30.

Learn more about Athletics Canada's selection process and criteria for the 2023 World Athletics Championships here.

Athletes selected to team canada for the 2023 World Athletics Championships