Lucia Stafford opens indoor season with impressive double in Boston
The 25-year-old middle-distance runner recorded a near 10-second best for 800m indoors
Photo by:
Kevin Morris
Toronto’s Lucia Stafford had an ideal start to her 2024 campaign on Saturday. The 25-year-old middle-distance runner kicked off her season at the John Terrier Classic at Boston University, winning and setting a new personal best over 800m indoors. Hours later, she added another victory in the women’s 1,000m.
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On the anniversary of her record-setting 1,000m race last year at the same meet, Stafford returned to continue her string of solid performances. She kicked off her 2024 season with a personal best in the women’s 800m, winning the race in 2:01.79, surpassing American Roisin Willis in the final 50 metres. Stafford improved on her previous indoor 800m personal best of 2:11.28 from 2015. Canadian 800m Olympian Madeleine Kelly took third in 2:02.38.
Three hours later, Stafford returned to the track at Boston University, successfully defending her title in the women’s 1,000m. Taking control of the race from 400m onwards, she won handily in 2:39.62 ahead of Kelly (2:40.15) and Addy Townsend of Coquitlam, B.C., who set a new personal best of 2:40.48.
🗣️: "At the end of the day, you have to just race."
Lucia Stafford breaks down her 2:01.79 800m win at the John Thomas Terrier Classic.
Full interview: https://t.co/KmJomnENn1#BUTerrierClassic pic.twitter.com/cd8CeRNbH7
— FloTrack (@FloTrack) January 27, 2024
Stafford faced adversity at the end of her 2023 season after her successes at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the Tokyo Olympics, where she reached the final in the 1,500m events. Despite being ranked inside the top 20 for the event heading into the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, she did not advance beyond the heats, finishing seventh, with only the top six moving into the semi-final.
Stafford aims to build on her impressive start at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix this Sunday, where she will face her sister in the women’s 1,500m. Having already secured the standard for next month’s World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, she looks to lower her indoor best of 4:04.29.
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