LONDON — Canadian Liam Stanley has qualified for the men’s T38 800-metre final at the world para athletics championships.
The 20-year-old Victoria native won his qualifying heat with the fastest time of the day on Friday, finishing in two minutes 5.89 seconds.
His time set an area record. The six-racer final is set for Sunday at London Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
"It’s not bad to run an area record in the heat but I was just trying to qualify for the final," said Stanley.
"I don’t really care about the time too much. I’ve been running faster than that in training and I hope I can go a couple of seconds faster in the final."
Shayne Dobson of Moncton, N.B., and Mitchell Chase of Pickering, Ont., failed to make it out of qualifying. Dobson’s time was 2:20.83 while Chase finished in 2:11.33.
Curtis Thom of Mississauga, Ont., came seventh in the men’s T54 100, clocking in a time of 14.78. Finland’s Leo Pekka Tahti won the race in 13.95. Isaiah Christophe of Brampton, Ont., failed to make it out of qualifying with a time of 15.38.
Toronto’s George Quarcoo clocked 11.41 in the men’s T12 100 heats, just failing to qualify for the final by .01 seconds.
The world para athletics championships runs until July 23. Canada has 25 athletes competing at the event.
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