Audrey Leduc sets new Canadian women's 100m sprint record, achieves Paris Olympic standard

Three weeks ago, sprinter Audrey Leduc inched closer to the Olympic standard in the women's 100 metres. On Saturday, she achieved her goal while shattering a long-standing Canadian record.

Leduc ran to a second-place finish in 10.96 seconds outdoors at the LSU Alumni Gold meet in Baton Rouge, La., after clocking 11.08 and falling 1-100th of a second shy of the Paris Olympic standard on March 30 at the Florida Relays.

Aleia Hobbs won in 10.88 while fellow American Celera Barnes was third (11.10).

Leduc's performance Saturday in a legal wind (+0.5 metres per second) broke the national mark of 10.98 by the late Angela Bailey from July 6, 1987 at the Budapest Grand Prix in Hungary.

Bailey, who also captured a women's Olympic relay silver medal in 1984, died of lung cancer last July 31 at age 59.

WATCH | Leduc takes down Bailey's 36-year-old Canadian 100m record:

The 25-year-old Leduc opened her 2023 outdoor season in 11.53 at the Florida Relays in Gainesville and set a then-personal best of 11.38 last July 15 at the Ontario U20 and Open Athletics Championships in Toronto.

She performed well indoors earlier this year, running a 7.21-second PB in the women's 60m semifinals at the World Athletics Indoor Championships but didn't qualify among the top eight for the final, placing 18th in Glasgow.

Leduc had gone 7.22 earlier in the day in her heat a week after a 7.25 clocking at an event hosted by Laval University, where the five-foot-seven athlete is a business student.

In August 2022, Leduc set a Canada Games record, stopping the clock in 11.55 seconds to win the women's 100 in Thorold, Ont.

On Sunday, two-time Canadian Olympian Evan Dunfee and Olivia Lundman secured the 21st of 22 qualifying spots for Paris in the marathon