MADRID — Brittany Crew broke her own Canadian record in the shot put on Friday in her first major meet of the summer.
The 24-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., threw 18.60 metres to finish third at the IAAF world challenge meet in Madrid, topping her previous best of 18.58 she set early last season.
"This was her first real test since Commonwealth Games (in April)," her coach Richard Parkinson said. "We shut it down after Commonwealth Games, I gave her a couple of weeks off completely, and we've been back 12 weeks at it."
Crew's record could fall again soon. She's throwing in Copenhagen on Tuesday, then in the IAAF world challenge meet on July 2nd in Budapest before returning for the Canadian track and field championships in Ottawa.
"She's just starting to realize peak form now, or competitive form," Parkinson said. "She's really just in the first week of that. Usually she reaches peak competitive form in seven to 10 days, so this is really only Day 4 or Day 5."
Crew became the first Canadian woman to compete in a world shot put final when she finished sixth last summer in London. Parkinson was forced to coach Crew via a video link in his hotel room there, as he'd been quarantined with the norovirus that swept through the Canadian team at the world championships.
The Canadian Press