Last night, Gabriela DeBues-Stafford became the first Canadian woman to run under four minutes in a 1500m race in the Diamond League final taking place in Zurich. Setting her sixth new Canadian record this year, she ran 3:59.59 to beat world record holder Genzebe Dibaba in an exciting final 100m, and claimed third place in the race. After breaking the previous Canadian record of 4:00.27 just five weeks ago, this was a tremendous accomplishment for DeBues-Stafford.

Gabriela began taking down records right off the bat in January, opening her season with a tremendous Indoor 5,000m race, clocking in at 14:57.02. She followed this with a new Indoor mile record time of 4:24.80. Later she raced her first ever outdoor 5,000m at the Diamond League in Stockholm, and set yet another new Canadian record, in a time of 14:51:59. 

Her fourth new record this year came in the outdoor mile which she raced in Monaco, running a time of 4:17.87. Finally, just five weeks ago, she broke the 1500m record when she raced a time of 4:00.25. Now, she’s gone sub-four in that same distance, for the first time in Canadian women’s history, running 3:59.59 in the Diamond League final.

Though her name will only appear in five new places this year, she has indeed set six new records this season.