| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (2004-08-05)5 August 2004 (age 20) Vaughan, Ontario, Canada |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Track and field |
| Position | Sprinting |
| Event | 400 metres |
| University team | Georgia Bulldogs |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personalbests |
|
Christopher Morales Williams (born 5 August 2004) is a Canadiansprinter[2] who specializes in the400 metres. Since 2022, he has competed for theUniversity 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 theSEC Championships held inFayetteville.[3][4] He then set a new Canadian record in the 400m at the 2024 OutdoorSEC Championships on May 11 with a time of 44.05.[5]
Williams was born inVaughan, Ontario to parents Raul Morales and Tania Morales Williams. He has two siblings: Nicolas and Alexandra.[6]
He attendedSt. 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.[4]
He majors inEcology at theUniversity of Georgia.[6]
Morales-Williams was the number one sprinter in his age group, training under coach Tony Sharpe with the Speed Academy Athletics Club. RepresentingSt. Elizabeth, he wonOFSAA 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 theAthletics Ontario U16 Provincial Championships, he won the 200 metres and 300 metres.
Due to theCOVID-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.
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 theYRAA 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 theCanadian National Championships in a personal best time of 46.41 seconds, qualifying him for the2022 World U20 Championships inCali,Colombia; he also finished 2nd in the 200 metres. Before leaving for Cali, Morales-Williams committed to theUniversity of Georgia.
InCali, 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.
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 theSEC Indoor Championships and failed to qualify for theNCAA Indoor Championships individually. He qualified in the 4x400 metre relay though withMatthew Boling,Caleb Cavanaugh, andWill 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 theNCAA 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 the2023 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 the2023 Pan American U20 Athletics Championships, where he won a silver medal behind countryman Will Floyd.
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 inFayetteville, 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 brokeKerron Clement's world official record of 44.57,[4] and ran faster thanMichael 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. His time was never ratified as the world record due the meet not having the correct starting blocks.[7]
Competing at theNCAA Indoor Championships inBoston, 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.[8]
On June 7 that year Morales-Williams completed the event sweep by also winning the NCAA outdoor 400m title in a time of 44.47.[9]
On July 12, 2024 Williams announced he would forego the rest of this collegiate eligibility and that he had signed a professional contract withadidas. That same day, he made hisDiamond League debut inMonaco. Morales-Williams stated that he planned to continue to train inAthens, Georgia to finish his degree.[10]
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | World U20 Championships | Cali, Colombia | 9th (sf) | 400 m | 46.27 |
| 3rd | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:06.50 | |||
| 2023 | Pan American U20 Championships | Mayagüez, Puerto Rico | 2nd | 400 m | 46.34 |
| 4th | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:12.32 | |||
| 2024 | Olympic Games | Paris, France | 21st (sf) | 400 m | 45.25 |
| 2025 | World Indoor Championships | Nanjing, China | 5th | 400 m | 46.71 |
| Year | SEC Indoor | NCAA Indoor | SEC Outdoor | NCAA Outdoor | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 400 m | 49.90 | 27th (h) | 4 × 400 m relay | 3:03.10 | 3rd | 200 m | 20.98 | 16th (h) | 4 x 100 m | 38.62 | 8th (h) |
| 400 m | 45.87 | 11th (h) | ||||||||||
| 4 x 100 m | 38.87 | 3rd | 4 x 400 m | 3:03.22 | 7th | |||||||
| 4 x 400 m | 2:59.63 | 3rd | ||||||||||
| 2024 | 400 m | 44.49 | 1st | 400 m | 44.67 | 1st | 400 m | 44.05 | 1st | 400 m | 44.47 | 1st |
| 4 x 400 m | 3:07.98 | 5th | 4 x 100 m | 39.77 | 2nd | 4 x 400 m | 3:05.21 | 5th | ||||
| 4 x 400 m | 3:05.97 | 2nd | ||||||||||
