Canada’s women’s 4x400 relay team wins bronze
Canada’s women’s 4x400 relay team brought the athletics portion of the FISU World University Games to a close in thrilling fashion, winning bronze in a time of 3:34.16. Paige Willems from the Saskatchewan Huskies ran lead, putting her country in an ideal position to medal, and that momentum continued the whole race.
Tyra Boug of Western kept pace in leg two, with Georgia Oland and Favour Okpali bringing Canada’s fans to their feet with two incredible laps to conclude the race. Oland surged ahead of India, South Africa and New Zealand to put Canada in a medal position, and Okpali had the juice to bring bronze home in the anchor leg.
“This means a lot to us. We’ve all been racing against each other for so long now in U SPORTS, and being able to be on the relay with Paige and Georgia, who I’ve been racing against indoors in the 300 and some relays, and Favour who’s at Western with me, it was super special,” said Boug.
“It’s really exciting to come together with them and get to know them better on this stage too. This is our first international medal for the four of us. We’re super excited. It was awesome to see put our best out other.”
Also eighth in the world in the women’s 400, Okpali (and Willems) were running their fifth race of the week. Okpali ran anchor the prior day for the quartet, sprinting ahead of New Zealand to guarantee Canada a spot in the final, and she did it again on Sunday.
In the final straight, Okpali – a national champion and school record holder for the Mustangs – had more left in the tank than her opposition from South Africa, pushing past the pain for bronze.
“When I saw Georgia run past the other girl, I knew I had to lock in and make sure they didn’t catch me,” said Okpali.
“Even though I was super tired at the end, I could see the girls behind me and running for my life, and really hoping we would medal. When we came in, we all collectively decided that we had such a great, strong team at U SPORTS and we could medal. It was so great getting to see us cross the finish line and get that medal.”
The third place result was the second for Canada in athletics, following Rachel Grenke’s bronze two days prior. Canada’s medal haul for the games finished at 11 overall.
In the men’s 4x400 final, the team of David Moulongou, Benjamin Tilton, Joshua Duckman and Dawson Mann finished sixth, in a time of 3:09.15.