Hello athletes and parents!

I would like to congratulate all of the athletes – Adeem, Alex, Amelia, Andrew, Annette, Ben, Cole, Corrina, Grace, Ethan, Hanna, Harrison, John, Kamila, Kevin, Kiannah, Lisa, Maddy, Madison, Mehrdad, Mikenna, Molly, Morgan, Noah, Olivia, Patrick, Phillip, Rachel, Rathaine, Rhea, Robert, Ryan, Sarah, Savanna, Skylar, Taylor, Thomas and Tyra – who competed in the Spring Challenge and Combined Events Provincials this past weekend. Among them, these 38 athletes produced some outstanding results.

I was very impressed with JD’s newest athletes, who were competing in their first meet: Morgan, Madison, Mikenna, Olivia, Rachel and Ryan. Given how little time you had to train prior to this meet – I think Olivia had only had one starts session prior to the meet – I thought your starts were especially strong. I had feared that you all might arrive at the start line and forget how to pace off your starting positions. I was having nightmares picturing you all standing at the start, gazing blankly at the start line and then at me. Clearly, I underestimated you. You looked like old pros out on the track, pacing off you marks quickly and with confidence and remembering to take a couple of 20m practice starts. Well done new bantams! A great first meet!

Congratulations to our midget and youth team, who successfully defended our title of Calgary Spring Challenge club champions for this age category. This is the seventh year in a row (since the title has been awarded) that the CALTAF midgets (1998/1999) and youths (1996/1997) have claimed the title. Well done CALTAF midgets and youths! The University of Calgary Athletics Club (UCAC) claimed the “open” (1995 and older) title, while Edmonton Columbians claimed the peewee and bantam (2000/2001) title. As soon as the meet director confirms which ten CALTAF midgets and youths accumulated the most points based on their results throughout the weekend and made up the winning team, I will let you know. I will also hand out a championship T-shirt to each team member.

There were an impressive 42 personal best performances (PBs) amongst those JD athletes who had competed previously and had results to better. Read More »