Christopher Morales Williams

Christopher Morales Williams (born 5 August 2004) is a Canadian sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. Since 2022, he has competed for the University of Georgia Bulldogs. On February 24, 2024, as a sophomore, he set a unofficial world indoor record in the 400 m of 44.49 at the SEC Championships held in Fayetteville. He then set a new Canadian record in the 400m at the 2024 Outdoor SEC Championships on May 11 with a time of 44.05.

Early and personal life

Williams was born in Vaughan, Ontario to parents Raul Morales and Tania Morales Williams. He has two siblings: Nicolas and Alexandra.

He attended St. Elizabeth Catholic High School where he graduated in 2022. He missed two years of high school track training and competition when schools were shut during the pandemic, substituting daily solo long distance runs for training, working up to 12 kilometres.

He majors in Ecology at the University of Georgia.

Athletics career

High school

2019

Morales-Williams was the number one sprinter in his age group, training under coach Tony Sharpe with the Speed Academy Athletics Club. Representing St. Elizabeth, he won OFSAA freshman titles in the 200 and 400 metres, breaking the Canadian U16 record in the latter with 49.14 seconds. He also finished 7th in the 100 metres. Representing the Speed Academy at the Athletics Ontario U16 Provincial Championships, he won the 200 metres and 300 metres.

COVID years

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, OFSAA was canceled in 2020 and 2021, and Morales-Williams was unable to train with the Speed Academy due to public health restrictions. He continued to train alone, going so far as to running miles in the snow, for which his father bought him winter spikes. Restrictions were eventually lifted and Morales-Williams returned to the Speed Academy; he finished third in the 200 metres and second in the 400 metres at the Athletics Ontario U20 championships, and won both events at the U18 championships.

2022

Morales-Williams entered his senior season as the number one ranked track recruit in Canada. After winning the 400 metres at the SPIRE Scholastic Showcase, he was named MileSplit's National Boys Performer of the Week, the first Canadian to do so. He went on to win the 400 metres at the Athletics Ontario Open Indoor Championships, as well as at the Nike Indoor Nationals.

With OFSAA returning in 2022, Morales-Williams swept the 100m, 200m and 400m at both the YRAA Championships and the OFSAA Central Region Qualifiers. He went on to win the 200 metres and 400 metres again at OFSAA, and finished second in the 100 metres. Two weeks later, Morales-Williams finished 7th in the 200 metres and 2nd in the 400 metres at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals. A week later, he won the U20 400 metres at the Canadian National Championships in a personal best time of 46.41 seconds, qualifying him for the 2022 World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia; he also finished 2nd in the 200 metres. Before leaving for Cali, Morales-Williams committed to the University of Georgia.

In Cali, he ran a personal best of 46.27 in the semi-finals, finishing 9th and just missing out on the final. However, in the 4x400 metres relay, he won a bronze medal with his teammates.

College career

Freshman year

Morales-Williams arrived at Georgia in January 2023 and began training under head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert. In February, he clocked a personal best of 47.42 seconds in the indoor 400 metres. Weeks later, he ran 47.90 seconds at the SEC Indoor Championships and failed to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships individually. He qualified in the 4x400 metre relay though with Matthew Boling, Caleb Cavanaugh, and Will Sumner, and together they finished second.

Outdoors, Morales-Williams lowered his 400 metre personal best to 45.87 seconds at the SEC Championships, though he failed to make the final again. He made it as far as the NCAA East Preliminaries, where he was eliminated in the second round. However, he once qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 4x100 metre relay, where their team failed to finish, and the 4x400 metre relay, where they finished 7th overall.

For the summer, Morales-Williams returned to Canada to train under Sharpe. Despite still being a U20 athlete, Morales-Williams entered in the senior 400 metres at the 2023 Canadian Track and Field Championships, and he went on to win in a personal best of 45.48 seconds. He was named to the national team for the 2023 Pan American U20 Athletics Championships, where he won a silver medal behind countryman Will Floyd.

Sophomore year and breakthrough

Morales-Williams' sophomore year proved to be an immense breakthrough. In his season opener at the Clemson Invitational, he broke the Canadian record in the indoor 300 metres; 4 weeks later, on the same track, he broke the Canadian record in the indoor 400 metres as well, running a time of 45.39 seconds, over 2 seconds faster than his personal best from the previous year and even faster than his outdoor personal best.

Just two weeks later in Fayetteville, Arkansas, after running 45.58 seconds in his prelim, Morales-Williams broke the world indoor 400 metre record with 44.49 seconds, winning the SEC Indoor title in the process. He broke Kerron Clement's world official record of 44.57, and ran faster than Michael Norman's unratified mark of 44.52, who was also coached by Gilbert. Morales-Williams said he felt ill in the morning and threw up, which motivated him further.

Competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Boston, Morales-Williams took first place becoming the first Canadian to win an NCAA indoor 400 m title. He split a time of 20.99 through 200 m before finishing with an mark of 44.67, the seventh fastest indoor performance of all time.

Competition record

International Competitions

SEC and NCAA Championships

References

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2004 births
Living people
Track and field athletes from Ontario
Sportspeople from Vaughan
United States collegiate record holders in athletics (track and field)
Georgia Bulldogs men's track and field athletes
Canadian male sprinters
NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships winners