Canada’s Max Davies breaks 33-year-old national record
The 2025 Harry Jerome Classic on Tuesday in B.C., marked a huge breakthrough for the Toronto runner, who set a new U23 1,500m Canadian best
Scott Peel (@perspectivebypeel)
Taking down a national record has been a long time coming for Toronto’s 21-year-old Max Davies. At the 2025 Harry Jerome Classic on Tuesday evening at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, B.C., the rising star ran a blistering 3:35.04 1,500m, taking down a U23 Canadian mark that’s stood since more than a decade before he was even born.
The meeting was extra special this year, falling on the 65th anniversary of Canadian sprint legend Harry Jerome‘s 100m world record of 10.00 seconds, set in Saskatoon on July 15, 1960. Davies took a close second to two-time American NCAA champion Nathan Green, who ran 3:34.97, with Samuel Prakel, also of the U.S., claiming third in 3:36.10.
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The previous Canadian record of 3:35.27 was set by Graham Hood, who was born in Winnipeg but grew up in Burlington, Ont., exactly 33 years earlier, on July 15, 1992. Davies’ performance marks a personal best by nearly three seconds, a time which is good for ninth-best on the Canadian all-time list.
The race plan
“My race plan was to just keep on the pace and not to let a gap form from the big names,” Davies told Canadian Running. “I felt good throughout–got a rough start and then just started to wind things up throughout the race.” He planned to make a move with 200m to go–but came up slightly short of taking down this year’s 1,500m NCAA champion.
“I’m very happy to have taken down the record,” Davies said. “That is something I have been looking to take down for a while now. I don’t know yet if it’s good enough to get me to worlds, but I’m gonna to keep cutting down the time–I think I have a couple more seconds in the legs.” While the auto-qualifying 1,500m standard for September’s World Championships in Tokyo is 3:33.00, athletes can also qualify by top World Athletics rankings, based on points accumulated at meets.
After sidelined the past few summers due to injury, Davies has had a successful outdoor season thus far. He raced to a huge 800m personal best of 1:47.94 in June, and a week later, improved his 1,500m best by two full seconds last month at Guelph, Ont.’s Royal City Inferno, running 3:37.86.
See here for full results from the Harry Jerome Track Classic.
