Melissa Bishop-Nriagu got a good start on her comeback after taking time off to have a baby.
On May 18 at the Johnny Loaring Classic in Windsor, Ontario, she won the women’s 1500-metre event in the time of 4:09.36. It was her first competitive race in two years. Her time broke her own meet mark of 4:09.58, set in 2017, as she finished 12 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.
Bishop-Nriagu will continue her comeback on June 20 competing at the Vancouver Sun Harry Jerome International Track Classic at Swangard Stadium. It will be her tenth appearance at the meet, where she holds the meet 800metre record of 1:58.79, set in 2016. Tickets for the Jerome meet are available at harryjerome.com/tickets.
Bishop-Nriagu is a two-time Olympian (2012, 2016) and a silver medallist in the 800m at the 2015 world championships and national women’s 800-metre record holder (1:57.01).
Bishop-Nriagu married former Canadian long jumper Osi Nriagu in 2017 and she gave birth to a daughter, Corinne, in 2018. She resumed training at her home in Windsor ten weeks after giving birth.
On her weekend return to racing, she said: “I’m happy to see the result. It’s what I was hoping for. It shows my fitness is coming along but we still have lots of work ahead of us.”
“I have confidence now in the work I’ve put in the last ten months since having Corinne. Now the goal is to keep working really hard and stay healthy.”
She plans on competing in the 800-metres in Guelph at the Inferno and at Jerome.
Her sites will be on the national championships in late July, the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, July 26-August 11, where she is the defending 800-metre champion, and the world championships September 28-October 6 in Doha, Qatar.
Bishop-Nriagu’s current training schedule consists of five to six hours, seven days a week and she hopes that will lead to running consistently below the two-minute benchmark in the 800metres.
