After lacking the 600m Canadian file final indoor season by simply one-tenth of a second, Quebec Metropolis’s Olivier Desmeules stormed previous the mark at Saturday’s Penn State Nationwide Open in State Faculty, Penn. The Canadian middle-distance runner clocked an astounding 1:15.59, smashing the three-decade-old nationwide file of 1:16.10, set by Manitoba’s Byron Goodwin in 1995.
“The race felt easy,” Desmeules instructed Canadian Working. “I noticed 47 seconds on the clock at 400m and knew I might break it.” The 24-year-old specializes within the 400m, 600m and 800m disciplines, boasting private bests of 47.53 (400m) and 1:46.97 (800m).
Feeling good on race day got here as a shock to Desmeules. He had run an 800m the day earlier than, couldn’t sustain together with his teammates by midway, and instructed his coach he wasn’t able to run the 600m. “To be utterly sincere, I didn’t wish to race,” he stated. However the subsequent morning, I felt unimaginable and requested to be put again in. It was utterly sudden!” His time now stands because the fifth quickest in Penn State program historical past, highlighting the depth of the college’s middle-distance program.
That is Desmeules’s final yr competing within the NCAA. “For my final yr at Penn State, I modified rather a lot my coaching,” he stated. “[I’m] focusing extra on cardio work, which is my greatest weak spot, whereas avoiding deep lactic classes, even when these are my favourites!”
The runner’s adjusted coaching program is paying off–he opened his 2025 season by operating a blistering 800m private finest, which was his first time beneath 1:47. The efficiency, which occurred on Jan. 18, stands as Canada’s fifth-fastest indoor 800m and the fourth-fastest in Penn State historical past.
“My solely purpose this season is to win NCAA indoor,” Desmeules says. “It’d sound delusional, on condition that my [top] mark received’t even qualify–I’m twelfth with 1:46.97. However I might fairly chase one thing large than accept much less.” The 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships happen on March 14 and 15 on the Virginia Seashore Sports activities Heart in Virginia Seashore, Va.
After indoors, Desmeules says his focus will shift to operating quick sufficient outside to proceed competing post-collegiately. And if that breakthrough doesn’t come, he says he’ll discover a approach to steadiness coaching with a profession in finance.
Michael Hussey takes down nationwide U20 600m file
On the similar meet, the College of Saskatchewan’s Michael Hussey additionally hurtled to a 600m nationwide file within the U20 division, clocking 1:18.17 to take fourth within the occasion. The earlier file of 1:18.39 was set by Manitoba’s Alejandro Civetta in 2024. Hussey smashed his former private better of 1:19.74 by almost a second and a half.