Jean-Simon Desgagnés runs PB, sets Quebec record and nears world, Olympic standards

Jean-Simon Desgagnés is inching closer to the automatic qualifying standards for the World Athletics Championships next month and Paris Summer Olympics in 2024.

The Canadian runner set a personal best and Quebec record Tuesday, finishing the men's 3,000-metre steeplechase in eight minutes 17.40 seconds at the Gyulai Istvén Memorial track and field meet in Székesfehérvár, Hungary.

Alex Genest achieved the previous Quebec mark of 8:19.33 nearly 12 years to the day on July 22, 2011 in Barcelona.

Record holder Matt Hughes (8:11.64), Graeme Fell (8:12.58) and John Gay (8:16.99) are the only Canadian men to run the 3,000 steeple faster than Desgagnés, a native of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que.

The 24-year-old ran a previous best of 8:20.68 in his season-opening steeple race on May 6 at the Sound Running Track Festival in Walnut, Calif.

It's his third PB of the season after a 13:37.67 clocking in the 5,000 on March 31 in Palo Alto, Calif., three months before he covered the 1,500 in 3:38.50 at Montreal's Claude Robillard Sports Complex.

Desgagnés, who ranked 31st in the world in the steeplecase on Tuesday, has through July 31 to reach the 8:15 world and Olympic standards.

Mohamed Tindouft of Morocco topped the 15-man field Tuesday in a winning time of 8:15.73, followed by Ethiopia's Samuel Firewu (8:16.40) and Uganda's Leonard Chemutai (8:17.14). Desgagnés was the only Canadian competing at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet, also known as the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix.

Two months ago, he went 8:23.32 to win the 3,000 steeplechase for a third consecutive year at Track Night on Randall's Island Park in New York City.

Last July, Desgagnés made his worlds debut in Eugene, Ore., and represented Canada at the fourth