Levins, Sifuentes qualify for finals at world championships

Canadian athletes started the weekend off on a good note in Sopot, Poland on Friday at the world indoor track and field championships.

Nicole Sifuentes ran a great race which saw her front running for the first 800m and qualified for tomorrow’s final by running a PB of 4:09:49 to take the first time qualifier. She finished third in her heat. All the time qualifiers came from Sifuentes‘ heat, which was significantly faster than the other two.

Nate Brannen failed to advance from his 1500m heats during the morning session. He broke two Canadian indoor records this year seemed ready for a strong showing at world indoors. He finished 10th in the finals at world championships last summer.

In the 3000m, Cam Levins qualified for Sunday’s final, taking one of four time qualifier spots after finishing fifth in his heat. Levins’ time of 7:44.04 is three seconds just three seconds shy of his personal best.

Jenna Westaway, representing Canada at the senior level for the first time after a breakout season with the University of Calgary Dinos, raced the 800m and also failed to make it out of the heats.

Brianne Theisen-Eaton propelled herself to a silver medal finish in the women’s pentathlon, an event that has athletes contest five events in a single day. She was sitting in third before the 800m race, which is the last event, when she ran 2:10:07 to move into second.

Gavin Smellie qualified for the 60m semi-finals on Saturday. He raced to a 6.63 in the shortest spring event to take the third auto qualifying spot in the final heat. T.J. Lawrence raced to a 6.74 result, missing the semi-final.

Competition will continue Saturday and Sunday.