Delhi: day 3 of track and field action

It was another good day for Canadian athletes at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi on Friday, following up Thursday’s gold-medal performances by shot-putter Dylan Armstrong and hammer thrower Sultana Frizell. Windsor product Jamie Adjetey-Nelson, 26, who earlier this year broke the 8,000-point barrier in the decathlon for the first time, reproduced the feat with a tally of 8,070 to take gold — and along with it, the title of “greatest athlete” in the Commonwealth.

Triple-jumper Tabia Charles added a surprise bronze medal with a hop, skip and jump of 13.84 metres, to the great displeasure of the boisterous home crowd. Her clutch fifth jump of 13.84 metres pushed Prajusha Maliakkal, who had set an Indian national record of 13.72 in the fourth round, off the podium. Indian spirits were restored in the final event of the program when Kavita Raut surprised favoured English, Australian and Scottish runners to take the 10,000-metre bronze medal behind Kenyans Grace Momanyi and Doris Changeywo.

For Canadian distance runners, the highlight was Winnipeg native Nicole Edwards’ fifth-place finish in the 1,500 metres. Edwards and teammate Hilary Stellingwerff ran at the back of the pack for most of race, while England’s Stephanie Twell tried to shake a trio of Kenyans. Olympic champion Nancy Langat pounced with 400 metres to go, running away to victory in a Games record of 4:05.26. Edwards, meanwhile, moved up steadily in the final 300 metres, passing three runners in the final strides to finish fifth in 4:08.16, her second-fastest time ever.

Here’s what Edwards had to say after the race:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ6-AeBFcAI[/youtube]