Toronto runner Lucia Stafford clocks fastest-ever indoor 1,000m by North American woman

Lucia Stafford is starting to follow in the footsteps of her sister, literally, by shattering records on the track.

On Saturday afternoon, she opened her 2023 season indoors and topped the women's field in two minutes 33.75 seconds over 1,000 metres at the Boston University Terrier Classic for her first Canadian national senior record.

The 24-year-old from Toronto beat her closest competitor to the finish by nearly three seconds as American Allie Wilson reached it in 2:36.31. Stafford, whose previous best was 2:37.73, broke the Canadian mark of 2:37.04 held by Calgary's Jenna Westaway since Feb. 8, 2019.

Stafford's clocking is the fastest indoors by any North American woman in history. Regina Jacobs, a three-time U.S. Olympian and former middle-distance athlete, ran 2:31.80 outdoors with a 2:35.29 indoor best, according to her World Athletics profile. In 2004, the then-40-year-old's career ended when she accepted a four-year ban after testing positive for THG, the designer steroid implicated in the BALCO doping scandal.

Only two women in the last 15 years have run faster than Stafford in the indoor 1,000 — Olympic silver medallist Laura Muir of Great Britain (2:31.93), the former training partner of Stafford's older sister, Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, and Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba (2:33.06).

DeBues-Stafford holds national records in the indoor 1,500, mile, 3,000 and 5,000, along with the outdoor 1,500, mile and 5,000.

On Nov. 12, Stafford ran the second-fastest Canadian 5K in her road race debut, posting a winning time of 15:20 at the Road2Hope Marathon weekend in Hamilton, four seconds shy of Emilie Mondor's national mark set in 2004.

In her debut for Bowerman Track Club last Feb. 11, Stafford won the women's mile in