Canadian Operating and Underneath Armour have teamed up for the 2025 Canadian U Sports activities indoor observe and subject season to spotlight among the nation’s brightest abilities. Every week, main as much as the 2025 U Sports activities Monitor and Area Championships in Windsor, Ont., in March, Canadian Operating will choose one male and one feminine athlete because the Underneath Armour Athletes of the Week.
The athlete of the week will likely be a female and male observe and subject athlete who achieved a standout efficiency, broke a college report or crushed a private finest. These athletes will likely be featured on the Canadian Operating website and awarded the UA Infinite Elite working shoe. College of Calgary’s Sienna MacDonald and Université de Sherbrooke’s Grégory Michel have been chosen as this week’s Underneath Armour U Sports activities Athletes of the Week for his or her performances on Feb. 7-8.
Sienna MacDonald, College of Calgary (CanWest)
The College of Calgary’s do-it-all standout, Sienna MacDonald, is again to her regular methods. On the ninth Annual Pandas Open on the College of Alberta’s Butterdome final Friday, the fourth-year athlete demolished her private finest within the 60m hurdles prelims, clocking 7.97 seconds–tying the 14th-fastest time on the planet this 12 months. Within the occasion’s ultimate, MacDonald dipped underneath her earlier finest (8.11 seconds) once more, crossing the road to win in 8.00 seconds.
In the identical weekend, MacDonald received the lengthy bounce with a near-personal finest efficiency of 6.23m and took third within the excessive bounce. She tops the nationwide leaderboards in all three occasions by a large margin.
“My objective going into the weekend was to run round 8.08,” MacDonald informed Canadian Operating. “I had been feeling actually sturdy in follow, my legs have been transferring properly and I felt like I had one thing to show to myself. ” Her time falls wanting the 2025 World Indoor Championships commonplace by a mere 0.03 seconds.
Performances by Calgary Dinos athletes don’t rely as program information except achieved on the CanWest or U Sports activities championships–in any other case, MacDonald’s run would beat her personal college report of 8.16 by almost two tenths of a second. “Hopefully I can run one other sub-8 at a type of meets and crush my earlier report,” she mentioned.
One of the best pentathletes excel throughout all 5 occasions–however MacDonald outshines even some specialists. Final 12 months, the Dinos athlete took residence U Sports activities gold within the 60m hurdles and lengthy bounce after successful the pentathlon title on the primary day of competitors.
The 22-year-old admitted she’s nonetheless processing her efficiency from the weekend. “I set the objective of working sub-8 for the hurdles earlier this season, and now that I’ve hit that, I would like to think about some new targets,” she mentioned. “Finally the largest objective is to remain wholesome, however I’d wish to attempt to defend each my CanWest and U Sport titles, though it’s going to be a problem–individuals have been placing up some superb scores and occasions.”
Grégory Michel, Université de Sherbrooke (RSEQ)
Finally Saturday’s French Nationwide Indoor Championships in Nantes, France, Université de Sherbooke’s Grégory Michel clocked 7.89 seconds within the 60m hurdles to affix MacDonald on the prime of the U Sports activities rankings. The 24-year-old ran three back-to-back races with simply half-hour of restoration, and simply saved getting sooner–in the end surpassing his earlier private finest of seven.91. He missed Sherbrooke’s program report by 0.04 seconds.
“I’m motivated as a result of this is a crucial step in my season,” he informed Canadian Operating. “Having the ability to decrease my time in every race and obtain my private finest within the third and ultimate one was actually satisfying.” Michel booked his ticket to March’s U Sports activities championships at his season opener in December, the place he clocked 7.99.
This indoor season marks Michel’s first 12 months 12 months competing in U Sports activities; the French athlete moved to Canada in 2018 for a university physiotherapy program earlier than transferring to Sherbrooke, Que., to coach with the college’s mixed occasions coach, Luc Lafrance.
Michel is zeroing in on the upcoming championship meets. On the RSEQ championships on Feb. 21-22 in Sherbrooke, he’ll have the benefit of competing on residence turf. “My objective for this indoor season is to grow to be the U Sports activities champion within the 60m hurdles,” he mentioned. “For the outside season, I wish to enhance my time within the 110m hurdles and goal for 13.60s, whereas additionally breaking the Quebec report.” His 110m hurdles private finest stands at 13.86.