Christopher Morales Williams is searching for perfection.

The 21-year-old from Vaughan, Ont., is set to defend his national title this week at the Canadian track and field championships in Ottawa. Morales Williams will run in the men’s 400-metre semifinal on Thursday, with the final taking place on Friday.

“This meet’s actually really important because it’s two rounds, which means it’s two more chances to just keep perfecting my race plan,” he said. “And what I really want to do is just distribute my energy properly and just make sure I just run a proper race.

“And I’m not necessarily all about just running like super fast or trying to PB (personal best) or whatever, but more so just how I actually run the race. I want to run a pretty decent time but I want actually do it properly.”

Morales Williams burst onto the scene back in 2024, turning professional after a record-setting, breakout sophomore season at the University of Georgia that saw him win both indoor and outdoor national titles. He finished as an Olympic semifinalist a day after he turned 20 that year.

The accolades created a world of expectations, but it took Morales Williams time to adjust to the pro circuit. He finished fifth at the 2025 world indoors and didn’t make it out of the heats for the outdoor worlds last year.

He’s turned things around as he approaches his 22nd birthday, however. He won the indoor world title back in March with a championship record time of 44.76 seconds and has his sights set on the Commonwealth Games and ultimate world championship later this year.

The lesson learned?

“You always just got to stay in your toes. Always going to keep your head down because at the end of the day, nothing is given,” he said. “And I’m always going to have to keep working hard no matter what. It’s not just like high school anymore where I could just not try and still win all my races, right?

“You got to always be on point because there’s always someone … you just never expect to just come up and take the spotlight. So you always just got to be ready and just keep working hard.”

After his run at the Paris Olympics concluded, he gave his word that he’ll eventually win world championship gold — both indoor and outdoor — be back to win an Olympic title and have a world record in his name.

He checked one of those boxes with the world indoor title, calling it motivation to push even further.

“That was a big deal,” he said. “It was something to check off on my checklist, right? It’s so early on, you know, boom, already done, world indoor. So this just felt almost like a relief, I’d say, just because, I did it especially so early in my career. … I worked so hard for this and for it to just pay off immediately, it was just great motivation.”

Despite the success, Morales Williams emphasized the need to take things “one step at a time.” His eyes are geared more toward how he runs his first 300 metres of his races than looking ahead to the big meets that await him.

He built a reputation for having an elite last 100 metres in his race dating back to his college days. However, he’s looking to make sure the first 300 can be on par to make himself complete and harder to beat.

“I really don’t want to be leaving anything on the table like I used to. I feel like my past couple of years, I used to just not really give it all I got in those first 300 and I finished the race and it’s like, I’m running so fast this last hundred, I finished the race, I’m really not even that tired.

“I probably could have gone way faster. I feel like all of my times, even two years ago, (they) could have just all been faster, had I just run properly. But it just takes getting used to getting out. And I just don’t want to leave anything on the table. I really want to make sure I run the fastest 300 I can without burning myself out for the last 100 of the 400.”

The Canadian track and field championships run from Wednesday to Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2026.