At the 2024 Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) Track and Field Championships, 17-year-old sprint phenom Will Batley of Carp, Ont., broke a provincial high school record that had stood for 40 years, in the senior boys 200m. Batley ran 20.95 seconds (+1.2 m/s) in the final on Saturday afternoon in London, Ont., breaking the OFSAA and Canadian high school record.
Congratulations to Will Batley, the 2024 Senior Boys 200 Meter champion and New CANADIAN INTERSCHOLASTIC RECORD HOLDER! #2024track #LETSGO #ofsaalondon #ofsaatrack pic.twitter.com/OixoLoQp8Z
— OFSAA Track & Field (@OFSAATrack) June 8, 2024
The Grade 11 student at West Carleton High School bettered the previous provincial interscholastic record by a hundredth of a second. Atlee Mahorn set the record in 1984, and during his career, he was a three-time Olympic sprinter for Canada. Mahorn held the senior 200m national record until Aaron Brown broke it in 2014. That record is now held by Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse (19.62).
Batley, who grew up playing soccer, did not take up sprinting until high school. He won the men’s 100m and 200m at OFSAA last year in the junior boy’s division (for Grade 10 students). The step up to compete against senior students posed no problem for Batley, as he won OFSAA gold by two-tenths of a second. He also ran in the senior boys 100m, finishing second to Isaac Chandra of Kenner Collegiate in Peterborough, Ont., in 10.35 seconds.
Mr. Graham is breaking into our weekend with important Track and Field updates!
We know Will Batley won the 200m race setting a Cdn record, but he also finished 2nd in the 100m, missing out on gold by .002 seconds!#PhotoFinish pic.twitter.com/xyusD3WnvY
— West Carleton SS (@WestCarletonSS) June 8, 2024
Batley was one of four athletes to set a Canadian high school record over the weekend in London. Additional records were set by Asia Phillips of Toronto in the senior girls triple jump (13.48 metres), Julia Tunks of London, Ont., in the senior girls discus throw (56.35 metres), and Alexis Asselin in the para-ambulatory 800m (2:23.65).
This was Batley’s first sub-21-second clocking in the men’s 200m event. Last summer, he represented Team Canada for the first time at the 2023 NACAC U18 Championships in Costa Rica, where he finished seventh in the 200m final. His 2024 OFSAA-winning time was only two-one hundredths of a second off the Canadian U18 record of 20.93 (+1.6 m/s), set in 1982 by Courtney Brown.
For full results from the 2024 OFSAA Championships, check here.
