Former York University Lions women’s track and field athlete Brittany Crew finished in sixth place in the shot put at the world championships in London, recording the best-ever result for a Canadian woman in the event.
Crew, an East York, Ont., native who spent three seasons with the Lions and is still a student at York studying kinesiology and health science, recorded a throw of 18.21m to become the first Canadian woman to finish among the top eight in the world.
She advanced to the final with a throw of 18.01m in the preliminary round the day before.
Crew has been on the rise in her sport over the past year. She qualified for the Rio Olympics last summer and this year set a new Canadian record in the shot put with a distance of 18.58m at an event in Arizona in May. She followed that up by winning the national championship in July. Crew will also represent Canada at the International University Sports Federation (FISU) World University Games later this month in Chinese Taipei, where she will look to improve upon the bronze medal she won two years ago in Gwangju, South Korea.
In her last two years competing in U SPORTS, Crew swept the throwing events at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) and U SPORTS championships and was named the field events performer of the year in both seasons. She is also a four-time U SPORTS first-team all-Canadian and twice earned York’s female athlete of the year award.