Ottawa’s Lauren Gale breaks Canadian indoor 400m record

At the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala., Lauren Gale of Ottawa broke her third Canadian indoor record of the season, clocking a 51.64 in the women’s 400m final. Gale finished eighth in a deep field, which earned her all-American honours, being named one of the top athletes in her discipline.

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The difference from third place to Gale was a mere .15 of a second, a small margin in mid-distance sprinting. She already owns Colorado State University’s indoor 400m record at 51.53, which she set at the Colorado Invitational on Jan. 29. Her previous time at CU’s facility did not meet Canadian indoor record standards, as it was run on an oversized 300m track instead of the 200m indoor regulation.

NEW CANADIAN 400M INDOOR RECORD for Lauren Gale!!! 51.64!!! pic.twitter.com/U2IZKzeB6f

— Ottawa Lions TFC (@OttawaLionsTFC) March 13, 2022

This marks Gale’s third Canadian indoor record of the season; she broke the indoor 300m and 200m records in February.

Gale will now travel to Belgrade, Serbia, to compete on Canada’s 4×400-meter relay team at the World Athletics Indoor Championships later this week.

Other notable Canadian NCAA indoor results:

After suffering a setback at the end of the 2021 season, Ceili McCabe of WVU made a comeback to finish eighth in the women’s 3,000m (9:05.09).

University of Michigan athlete and Toronto native Aurora Rynda finished seventh in women’s 800m (2:06.33).

Toronto’s Ehab El-Sandali of Iona University mixed it up early in the men’s 5,000m, but fell off the pack late, finishing 13th in 13:45.40. El-Sandali will also be heading to Serbia this week to compete for Canada in the men’s 3,000m at World Indoors.

In her first NCAA indoor championship, Rosseau, Ont.’s Gracelyn Larkin placed eighth in the women’s 5,000m in 15:44.31 to earn NCAA All-American honours.