Audrey Leduc slept badly on Saturday. And not necessarily because she had to get up at dawn to catch her flight back to Montreal. Almost every hour, she woke up with a number in her head: “11.08.” Then she saw her race go by.
This nocturnal agitation found its source in the 100 m of the Florida Relays, a competition where the sprinter from Gatineau had opened her outdoor season a few hours earlier, in Gainesville.
Not only did she set the fastest time of the day, but she shattered her personal mark by three tenths, breaking a 32-year-old Quebec record and coming within one hundredth of the qualifying standard. automatic for the Paris Olympic Games.
“It felt like my body and brain were in shock! », recounted Audrey Leduc, two days later, still surprised by her lightning time achieved on the track at the University of Florida stadium.
During the ordeal, she mistakenly believed her rivals were catching up to her, which inspired her to push even harder. Once she crossed the finish line, she had no idea what her effort had achieved.
I knew it was a good race, but I didn’t know it could be as fast as that. When we run fast, we don’t necessarily realize it because we have never run at that speed.
Audrey Leduc
The scoreboard was far away, but she heard her time spoken by the announcer over the speakers. Still out of breath, she wasn’t entirely sure she understood correctly. It was only when she noticed the excitement of two teammates registered in the same race, the Franco-Ontarian Jacqueline Madogo (11.36) and the Montrealer Donna Ntambue (11.61), that she began to take the lead. measure of his achievement.
While the 24-year-old Quebecer returned to the starting line to collect her personal belongings, the announcer added that she was ranked second in the world for the current year. Only the American Cynteria James did better with 11.01, in South Carolina, a week earlier.
“Yes, you have to live it, yes, you have to enjoy it, but I am aware that the best, like [les Jamaïcaines] Shericka Jackson, Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce and the Americans have not yet raced, said Audrey Leduc. We agree that they will go faster than 11.08. »
Nevertheless, such time would have allowed her to reach the semi-final of the last World Championships, for which she had not qualified. Fourth at the Canadian championships at the end of July, she had clocked a personal best of 11.38 two weeks earlier in Toronto.
An excellent indoor season
The MBA student at Laval University experienced meteoric progress during the indoor season, setting personal bests in the 60m from the beginning of December. On February 17, in Ottawa, she twice beat the provincial mark which belonged to Montrealer Kimberly Hyacinthe, raising it to 7.22. She improved it by a hundredth in the semi-final of the World Championships in Glasgow on March 2.
PHOTO BEN STANSALL, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Audrey Leduc (right) during the World Championships in Glasgow, March 2
Her only regret: falling two hundredths short of the record at the Canadian University Championships, where she won gold on March 7 in Winnipeg. She promises to get back on track next year.
Leduc was therefore full of confidence for the Florida Relays, where she also had an excellent third relay with her Canadian teammates in the 4 x 100m, a few hours before the individual event. Especially since her strength, she describes, is “pure speed”, an aspect that she only touches on in such a short sprint.
She had already noted the provincial 100m record which had belonged to Julie Rocheleau since 1988, but she was no longer sure of the precise time (11.13). To avoid undue pressure, she had forbidden her family and her chum to tell him. “I said to myself: after the first race of the season, I’m going to go and see…”
“When I was younger, I didn’t expect to make a record. I saw everyone running well, I set junior records, nothing more. I had puberty later too. I progressed gradually. It’s happening here, and this is the right year for it to happen. »
A new home
After four years in Quebec with the Rouge et Or, Audrey Leduc followed her coach Fabrice Akué to Athletics Canada’s new high performance center at the Claude-Robillard complex, in the spring of 2023. She also benefits from all the services offered by the National Sports Institute of Quebec at the Olympic Park. This support allowed him to improve in several facets: bodybuilding/track combination on the same day, nutrition, mental preparation, etc.
“We’ve been building a relationship with Fabrice for five years. It is now that we can see the fruits. It’s like a puzzle: I had all the pieces, but you have to put them together. »
The next month will be mainly devoted to the relay, with a national training course in Louisiana before the Worlds in the Bahamas, where the Canadians will try to qualify for the Olympics. She will then seek to ensure her individual selection, ideally with the automatic standard (11.07), otherwise by the world ranking.
Now the third female performer in Canadian history, Audrey Leduc is now eyeing two new goals: going under 11 seconds and the national record of 10.98, established by Angela Bailey in 1987. “Why not? »