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Canada’s Jazz Shukla qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in the 800-metre event during the Athletics Canada Olympic Trials and National Championships in Montreal.
The race
Saturday evening, Shukla won the event in a new personal best time of 1:58.20. The qualification standard is 1:59.30. Canada can send up to three women and the International Olympic Committee will allow up to 48 competitors to start in the heats. For Shukla, it was the first time under the two-minute benchmark. The performance makes her the second fastest Canadian all-time behind Melissa Bishop-Nriagu (1:57.01).
The 25-year-old University of Toronto alumna is now ranked 34th globally. Five of the 34 in front of her are from the US. Two of them are not going to be racing in Paris.
Jazz Shukla – OLYMPIC STANDARD! 2nd fastest Canadian of all time! Going to Paris! pic.twitter.com/zsQ6h07cok
— Stephen Andersen (@AndersenRuns) June 30, 2024
Finishing in second place was Aurora Rynda clocking a 2:02.03 performance and taking third was Addy Townsend in 2:03.15.
Shukla, took the lead at the cut-in and never relinquished it. She began to space herself from the field, that was quickly strung out in single file and continued to build. A sprint finish was not needed.
Four year hiatus
After a four-year hiatus from competing in the 800m event, Shukla ran a PB of 2:01.98 at the 2022 Speed River Inferno in Guelph, ON. The following year, she clocked a 2:01.43 during the Inferno. Shukla placed third behind Madeleine Kelly and Rynda at the Canadian national championships in July 2023. This time Kelly was fourth.
Last year, Shukla competed in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, and ran a personal best time of 2:00.30. By doing so, she advanced to the semi-finals as the second fastest non-automatic. In the semi-finals, she ran yet another personal best time of 2:00.23 to finish in seventh.
The Toronto native competed for Canada at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships too. In February, she clocked an indoors best of 2:01.00.
*Photo credit: Athletics Canada.
