Brooklyn’s Sarah Mitton tops Canadian field to qualify for Olympics in Paris

Sarah Mitton was tops in the shot put at the Canadian Athletics trials in Montreal last week. The four-time Canadian champion is headed to the Summer Olympics in Paris. (Mundo Sport Image via Athletics Canada Facebook)

Queens County Olympian Sarah Mitton is on her way to Paris.

The 28-year-old world champion shot putter from Brooklyn qualified recently for the Canadian track and field team that will be going to the Summer Olympics July 26 to Aug. 11. 

Her throw of 19.62 metres at the Canadian Olympic trials secured her fourth straight Canadian title.

She owns the world’s longest throw this year and a Canadian record at 20.68 m.

Mitton set that mark in March when she captured gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championship in Glasgow. She is also a Commonwealth Games champion, a Pan American Games champion and a silver medallist at the world championships.

In early June, she also captured top spot at the World Athletics Continental Tour in New York City, with a top throw of 20.15 m, beating her closest competitor by more than a metre.  

“This time, it just feels totally different,” Mitton said in a Canadian Olympic team news release. “We’re preparing more for a medal, and that’s just a totally different feeling going into the Games.

“I feel very confident. A lot has changed since I went to the Olympics last time during COVID. I’m excited to have a crowd. I’m excited to have my family there. I’m just excited about taking the whole thing in.”

Mitton made her Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2020. She told QCCR in March just after winning the world indoor gold medal that she’s matured as a competitor since her first Olympics, and that she’s ready for Paris.

“I think shot put is really this unique sport where as you get older you can still get better,” she said.

“So I think I’m kind of coming into my prime as a thrower. It’s a very technical, very strength-based event. So the stronger you get the better, which takes time. The technical aspect is just so fine-tuned that I’ve got so many throws under my belt and then so many throws in these major competitions now, that I think being able to take away from everything is just building that consistency and then building that confidence amongst the higher-level comps. Being able to handle myself more as a professional as opposed to a rookie thrower who perhaps gets nervous prior to the competition. And I’m able to keep my composure.”

The women’s Olympic shot put qualification round is on Aug. 8, with the final the next day.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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