For the second time this month, University of Toronto Varsity Blues track and field star Gabriela DeBues-Stafford has broken a Canadian record – this time in the indoor mile. DeBues-Stafford ran a 4:24.80 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston today, winning the event and knocking more than two seconds off Kate Van Buskirk's record of 4:26.92, set one year ago at the Dr. Sander Invitational in New York.
On January 4, at her first race of the 2019 indoor season, DeBues-Stafford broke the Canadian indoor 5000m record at the GAA Miler Meet in Glasgow, Scotland, running 14:57.45 to smash the previous record of 15:25.15 held by Megan Metcalfe-Wright. It was her first time racing the 5K distance.
2019 is shaping up to be a very big year for the 23-year-old psychology student at the University of Toronto. Not only has Stafford already set two new Canadian records in the first month of the year, but she also recently got married, and has plans to relocate to Scotland later this year to train with Laura Muir, one of Europe's dominant middle-distance runners.