“How cool is that?” – DeBues-Stafford has three running legends cheering her on

DeBues-Stafford has emerged from relative obscurity to become one of Canada’s top athletes to watch at the world track and field championships that open Friday in Doha, Qatar.

And when the 24-year-old from Toronto crouches at the starting line of the 1,500 metres — she’s ranked fourth in the world in the event — she’ll have a distinguished group of Canadian women, including Kanuka, cheering her on.

Part support group/part cheering section, it’s a Who’s Who of decorated women including Leah Pells, former owner of the Canadian mile record — “Gabriela slaughtered it,” Pells said with a loud laugh — and Courtney Babcock, former record-holder in the 5,000 metres.

The trio fill her inbox with words of encouragement. Before the Monaco Diamond League meet in July, Pells posted on DeBues-Stafford’s Instagram, with three heart emojis: “Go break my mile record!!!”

DeBues-Stafford did, slashing more than five seconds off Pells’ record from 1996.

Her sizzling record-breaking season also saw her break the indoor mile record, and the outdoor 1,500 mark twice. She broke the indoor 5,000-metre record the first time she ran the distance. She repeated the feat outdoor, then took another seven seconds off her own outdoor 5,000 record earlier this month.

Should DeBues-Stafford climb the podium in Doha or at the Tokyo Olympics next summer, she’ll have a collection of women in her corner.

“I am very grateful and lucky that the Canadian running community is so supportive,” DeBues-Stafford said. “It was pretty special that after each record I broke, I got a message from Courtney, Lynn, and Leah themselves congratulating me.

“To receive support from the legends themselves, how cool is that?”

DeBues-Stafford was 20 years old and battling butterflies the night before racing to a silver medal at the 2015 Summer Universiade in South Korea. The young athlete reached out to Kanuka, a Canadian team coach, for advice.

DeBues-Stafford still has Kanuka’s reply in her in box. She read it this summer right after breaking Kanuka’s 34-year-old Canadian record in the 1,500 metres. She read it again just before becoming the first Canadian woman to dip under the four-minute mark over the same distance.

“Gabriela — you are an extremely talented and competitive athlete, so passionate you almost send yourself over the edge in your excitement to do well,” Kanuka wrote in the lengthy email. “That’s ok — it’s a GOOD thing. I LOVE your fun-loving energy… not only do you have what it takes to REALLY do something amazing over these next few years, you truly simply love to run and love to work hard and get the best out of yourself. You see the challenge in it.”

Pells, a 54-year-old clinical counsellor who specializes in trauma and substance abuse, works in an alternative school program in Coquitlam, B.C., and counsels mainly adolescents and first responders out of her private practice. She doesn’t follow track much these days, but feels a unique connection to DeBues-Stafford.

“I’m interested in her as a human being, and I’d say more in a philosophical way how she approaches running,” Pells said. “She does it because she loves it, and she tries to focus on the good in it — I really love that, because I believe to be successful you have to be completely immersed in love of what you’re doing. We’ve had lots of conversations around joy and love and what it feels like to feel good in your body, and to bring that to what you’re doing.”

Kanuka (formerly Williams) is a personal and corporate coach and a passionate advocate for healthy living in Indigenous communities through her work with ISPARC (Indigenous Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation Council) and SportMedBC.

The 59-year-old said DeBues-Stafford has the perfect mix of strengths: speed, endurance and the right racing instincts.

“It’s also the confidence that you have in your training, so she’s fearless because she knows what she can handle, she knows that currently in the world there’s (no race pace) that can be dished out that she can’t go with, and you can see it in her eyes and in her face, and she’s right in it. That’s where you have to be,” Kanuka said from the northern B.C. town of Terrace, where she was working with ISPARC.

The mom of four believes there’s “just so much more to come” from DeBues-Stafford.

“It’s like we’re on this tip of the iceberg,” said Kanuka, who won Olympic bronze in the 3,000 at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. “It will be really exciting now that she’s reached a certain level to see what she can put together in championship events. She’s got the tools to be an amazing championship runner. Never mind the records. The records will get broken, but to win a championship, no one ever takes that away from you.”

The 47-year-old Babcock set the 5,000 outdoor record in 2003, but after seeing DeBues-Stafford duck under the 15-minute barrier in the indoor 5,000 — in her first crack at the distance — Babcock figured her record was in jeopardy. She was thrilled.

“Amazing,” Babcock said. “I was like ‘Wow!’

“I think my first-ever 5K was like 16-something,” she added laughing.

Babcock reached out to DeBues-Stafford before the Stockholm Diamond League in May.

“Stockholm was the only time I had podium-finished in a Diamond League, I was third, and I messaged her and said ‘This was a great meet for me, I know it’s going to be a great meet for you, I’ll be watching. I’m sure you’ll get the record,'” Babcock said.

She did, lowering it by four seconds, and another seven seconds on Sept. 6 in Brussels.

DeBues-Stafford is a gutsy runner who’s not “afraid to put it out there,” Babcock said.

“She’ll just run like she belongs there,” she said. “It feels like she’s just not intimidated, she just goes out and believes that she can run with anyone, which is the key. You have to believe you can be the best in the world.

“To be fearless enough to run a sub-15 (minutes in the 5,000), to go at that pace in your first-ever 5K, that’s pretty outstanding.”

Babcock lives in Missoula, Mont., and trains with a group that includes Diane Cummins, the former national record-holder in the 800. Babcock still races at the masters level and will compete at the world masters championships next summer in Toronto.

She loves the supportive sorority of women runners, made possible because of social media.

“It’s so fun to see,” Babcock said. “It’s really cool that we’re in this spot where everybody is cheering for each other, and hoping for the best. Because it’s time.

“It’s also at a cool time where the current Canadian girls are all pushing each other to be better, like a rising tide raises all ships. It’s really cool to watch them all cheer each other on.”

Both Babcock and DeBues-Stafford are products of the University of Toronto Track Club. Babcock’s training partner was DeBues-Stafford’s aunt Sara Gardner. DeBues-Stafford’s dad ran for Canada at four world cross-country championships and her younger sister Lucia was a medallist at the Pan American junior championships.

No Canadian woman has won a world or Olympic medal in the 1,500 metres. Pells was fourth at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

A look at Gabriela DeBues-Stafford’s record-breaking season:

Jan. 4: Indoor 5,000 metres, 14 minutes 57.45 seconds at Glasgow AA Metric Miler Meeting

(Previous Canadian record was 15:25.15 set by Megan Metcalfe-Wright in 2008)

Jan. 26: Indoor mile, 4:24.80 at New Balance Indoor Grand Prix

(Previous Canadian record was 4:26.92 set by Kate Van Buskirk in 2018)

May 18: Outdoor 5,000 metres, 14:51.59 at Stockholm Diamond League

(Previous Canadian record was 14:54.98 set by Courtney Babcock in 2003)

July 12: Outdoor mile, 4:17.87 at Monaco Diamond League

(Previous Canadian record was 4:23.28 set by Leah Pells in 1996)

July 20: Outdoor 1,500 metres, 4:00.26 at London Diamond League

(Previous Canadian record was 4:00.27 set by Lynn Williams in 1985)

Aug. 29: Outdoor 1,500 metres, 3:59.59 at Zurich Diamond League

(Broke own record)

Sept. 6: 5,000 metres, 14:44.12, Diamond League Final in Brussels

(Broke own record)

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2019.

Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

“How cool is that?” – DeBues-Stafford has three running legends cheering her on

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