When world-wide depth of field is considered, it’s hard to argue against track medals being the hardest to win in sports. That is the standard by which to measure Victoria-based Gabriela DeBues-Stafford’s impressive fifth-place finish in the women’s 1,500 metres at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after placing sixth at the 2019 world championships in Doha.
DeBues-Stafford has been announced as a headliner for the Victoria Track Classic on June 12 at Centennial Stadium, a key meet for Canadian and international athletes preparing and vying for the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer.
“I first raced the Vic Track Classic back in 2016, before I had made my first Olympic team, so I have some really fond memories with this event,” DeBues-Stafford said in a statement.
“This sport often sees its pro athletes flying all over the world for races, so I’m pumped to be able to compete at what is now my home track and to be able to sleep in my own bed the night before a race.”
DeBues-Stafford was raised in Toronto and came to Victoria to live and train in 2022 after being based in Portland, Oregon.
It will be a family affair with sister Lucia Stafford, also based in Victoria, and competing in the meet. Lucia, semifinalist at the Tokyo Olympics, recently made 2024 Olympic standard for the 1,500 metres at a meet in Los Angeles and both siblings look primed for Paris. Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, the Canadian 1,500 metre and 5,000 metre record holder, will race the 1,500 metres next Wednesday and Lucia Stafford the 800 metres.
“It’s awesome to be competing in Victoria,” said Stafford, in a statement. “This is the home track for both my siblings [brother Nicholas Stafford runs for the UVic Vikes] so it’s like a home meet in some ways. The West Coast has been kind to me so far this season so I’m excited to get back out here, surrounded by the Canadian track community, as I fine tune ahead of nationals and Paris.”
Adding to the family feel is that the Victoria Track Classic meet director is Rowan DeBues-Stafford, husband of Gabriela and brother-in-law of Lucia.
The men’s 1,500 metres will be highlighted by former national-champion Will Paulson of Victoria, the 2019 Lima Pan Am Games bronze medallist and 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games finalist out of the NCAA Arizona State Sun Devils, up against U Sports record-holder Max Davies from Guelph, Ont.
The venerable Victoria Track Classic began in 1988 and has featured numerous international and Canadian Olympians over that time, including the likes of Peter Rono, Dwight Stones, Alberto Salazar, Derek Drouin, Dylan Armstrong and Island Olympians such as Gary Reed, Mike Mason, Angela Chalmers, Debbie Scott and Diane Cummins.
The 2024 edition of the Victoria Classic will begin a 6 p.m. next Wednesday with the amateur races, and the elites to the starting gun beginning at 7 p.m. Events to be contested are the men’s 100 metres, women’s 100-metre hurdles and men’s and women’s 400, 800 and 1,500 metres on the track and the javelin, pole vault and discus in the field.
The women’s discus event will be highlighted by Rachel Andres and Agnes Esser, currently ranked second and third respectively in Canada. The Islander Esser, out of Frances Kelsey Secondary in Mill Bay and the three-time Canadian champion and three time all-America with the NCAA Big Ten University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, has been close to Olympic qualifying in the past and is looking to make it to Paris.
The Victoria Track Classic is sanctioned by World Athletics, meaning athletes can gain qualifying points for the Paris Olympics. General admission will be $15 with tickets at the door or online through the UVic Vikes athletic department website. Kids 12-and-under are free.
