Canadian runner DeBues-Stafford forced to shut down season due to injury

Canadian middle-distance star Gabriela DeBues-Stafford will miss the world track and field championships this summer due to injury.

The 26-year-old from Toronto announced Wednesday on Instagram that a stress reaction in her sacrum is forcing her to shut down her season.

"My 1,500 in [the Prefontaine Classic] showed us we were ready for some big things this year," she said. "I was so excited to see what those big things would be, can we make a podium? A PB? North American record?

DeBues-Stafford holds seven Canadian indoor and outdoor track records. She was fifth in the 1,500 metres at the Tokyo Olympics and fourth in the 3,000 at the world indoor championships this past winter.

She won bronze in the 1,500 at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meet in late May in Eugene, Ore., but has been sidelined with the injury since, withdrawing from meets in Hengelo, Netherlands and Rome while hoping the injury was nothing serious.

She figures the injury was "just the perfect storm — partly mechanical/strength related, partly some under-fuelling, not enough consistent sleep/recovery, and also lots of stress," she said in her Instagram post.

DeBues-Stafford trained with the Bowerman Track Club in Portland for the past two years. But she said that the aftermath of Houlihan's four-year doping ban in June of 2021 hurt her preparation for the Olympics, and the fact Houlihan remained connected to the Bowerman club is too much of a distraction.

The Canadian track and field championships are June 23-26 in Langley, B.C., and the world championships are July 15-24 in Eugene, Ore.