Personal Bests - Melissa Bishop

Published by IAAF on December 7, 2015

During a breakthrough year, Canadian 800m runner Melissa Bishop grabbed the Pan American title, the national record and a world silver medal. We ask the rising middle-distance talent about some of the best and greatest elements to her life.

My best friend 

Canadian hammer thrower (and Commonwealth champion) Sultana Frizell. Before I went to university, we lived together for a year during my last year at high school. We are both from two small towns just outside of Ottawa and we clicked straight away. She is hysterical and she can make you happy in a second. She is one of my best friends, not only the circuit, but also outside of track and field.

My best achievement

I’m going to go with the Canadian record (of 1:57.52 set in the 2015 World Championships semi-finals) followed by my silver medal at the World Championships. The reason why I experienced more satisfaction out of the record was because it was a 1:57.52 and it was not like I broke the previous record (1:58.39) by a small margin. Also the person who held the record, Diane Cummins, is a very dear friend of mine. She was just exiting her career as I was entering mine, but she’s always been so supportive. I can turn to her for anything, so one of my first thoughts when I broke the record was I need to call Dianne because she would be so excited.