CALTAF Track and Field

I would like to offer my sincerest congratulations to the 45 JD athletes – Katie, Lauren Garnett, Ellie, Maria, Jessica, Bailey, Kendall, Antha, Kennedy, Lauren Fridman, Josie, Siri, Janessa, Emily, Steph, Dana, Anna, EmmaMartin, Madelaine, Emma Chong, Rhea, Mia, Heather, Brent Bester, Nicholas, Rui, Rowan, Charlie, Austin, Matthew Springer, Eric, PatrickLyster, Scott, Alex McDuffie, Matthew Schalm, Jackson, Tyler, BrentStephen, Michael, Alex Charlesworth, Nathan, Lockie, Patrick Meister, Sean, Ben, and Cheetah Alison Martin, who competed in the Calgary Spring Challenge and Combined Events meet this past weekend.  Among them, these 46 athletes produced some outstanding results. What pleased me the most was that, being the trials for the Alberta Summer Games, this was our first really important meet of the outdoor season, with the top athletes from all over the province competing. The JD athletes certainly rose to the occasion. There were 98 personal best performances recorded by the JD athletes at this meet – a remarkable number. JD athletes captured 7 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 14 bronze medals. The CALTAF midget/youth team is, for the fourth year in a row, the Spring Challenge Team Champions, continuing their undefeated streak since the Challenge first took place in 2007. The peewee/bantam team finished 3^rd of six teams behind two very strong teams from the Calgary Spartans and Passtrak. As a result of the meet, there will no doubt be an impressive number of JD midget athletes named to Team Calgary for the Alberta Summer Games. Well done everyone!  Those are outstanding results! Congratulations!

There were many, many highlights, so be prepared for a long read!

CALTAF midget and youth athletes captured the Spring Challenge Championship title by finishing 1^st of eleven club teams.

Edmonton Olympic Club and the University of Calgary Athletics Club finished 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. CALTAF’s top ten point earners in this age category were: Austin with a whopping 40 points; Ellie with 25 points, Ryan Mckay of CALTAF’s Power and Speed Group with 22 points; Kendall with 20 points, Alex Smith of Power and Speed with 20 points, Daniel Yee of Power and Speed with 20 points, Emily with 19 points, Nicole Squires of Power and Speed with 18 points, Bryce Clements of Power and Speed with 18 points, Maria with 17 points,James Tiberio of Power and Speed with 17 points, and MatthewSpringer with 17 points. Congratulations! I will give you your 2010 Spring Challenge Champion T-shirts as soon as I receive them from the meet director.

Other midget point earners from JD were: Patrick Lyster with 16 points Matthew Schalm with 15 points, Nicholas with 12 points,Brent Stephen with 11 points, Lauren Garnett with 10 points, Ruiwith 10 points, Brent Bester with 9 points, Scott McClure with 8 points, Katie with 7 points, Jessica with 6 points, Lauren Fridman with 6 points, Siri with 6 points, Rowan with 6 points, Tyler with 5 points, Eric with 5 points, Jackson with 5 points, Janessa with 4 points, Michael with 3 points, Antha with 2 points and Bailey with 1 point. Well done midget athletes!

CALTAF peewee and bantam athletes placed 3^rd of six teams with an impressive 188 points.

Our top ten point earners in this age category were: Emma Martin with the highest point total of all CALTAF athletes at 44 points, sibling and Cheetah athlete Alison Martin with an outstanding 42 points,Alex Charlesworth also with an impressive 42 points, Madelaine with 20 points, Nathan with 17 points, Emma Chong with 13 points, Seanwith 12 points, Lockie with 6 points, Dana with 4 points and Ben with 4 points. Other bantam point earners from JD were Heather with 3 points, Michael with 3 points, Mia with 2 points and Patrick with 1 point. Well done peewees and bantams!

Several JD athletes finished in the top three in their events and captured gold, silver and/or bronze medals.

• Austin led the JD Group with two gold medals in the 100m hurdles and javelin, and two bronze medals in the 200m hurdles and the long jump.
• Emma Martin captured a gold medal in the 1200m, silver medals in both the 150m and 800m, and a bronze medal in the 80m.
• Alex Charlesworth won a gold medal in the ball throw, silver medals in both the 80m hurdles and high jump, and a bronze medal in the shot put.
• Madelaine won a gold medal in the shot put and a bronze medal in the discus, where she competed up against the older midget athletes.
• Ellie captured the gold medal in the 300m, where she finished in a personal best time of 42.15s, beating the standard required to compete at Legion Nationals in Ottawa in August.
• In her first high jump competition, Kendall captured the gold medal, clearing 1.45m.
• Patrick Lyster captured silver medals in both the 100m hurdles and the midget pentathlon.
• Matthew Springer won the silver medal in the midget high jump with an impressive 15cm personal best jump of 1.55m.
• Scott McClure captured the silver medal in the discus with a throw of 27.70m.
• In his first high jump competition, bantam Nathan captured the silver medal, clearing 1.35m.
• Maria demonstrated that she is the leader amongst the CALTAF girls in the throws by winning the bronze medal in the shot put with a personal best throw of 8.69m and the bronze medal in the javelin with a personal best throw of 13.31m.
• Matthew Schalm demonstrated his strength in the throwing events by capturing the bronze medal in the discus with a personal best throw of 25.43m and the bronze medal in his first javelin competition with a throw of 21.47m.
• Nicholas captured the bronze medal in the 100m, where he ran a personal best time of 11.87s.
• Rowan, one of our newest athletes, took on the challenge of the midget pentathlon and walked away with the bronze medal.
• In his first sprint hurdles competition, first-year midget Brent Stephen won the bronze medal.
• Lauren Garnett, the only midget women brave enough to attempt the pentathlon, captured the bronze medal with an impressive 1886 points.
• In her first attempt at the 80m hurdles, first-year midget Emilycaptured the bronze medal, finishing 3^rd of ten athletes in 14.54s.
• One of the most impressive medal hauls of the meet came from peewee and Cheetah athlete Alison Martin, who captured a silver medal in the shot put and four bronze medals in the 60m, 150m, long jump, and standing long jump.

Well done medal winners! A very impressive list of medals!

There were many other impressive finishes.

• Katie was 5^th of 11 athletes in the midget 800m and 6^th of 13 athletes in the 1200m.
• Ellie was 4^th of 13 athletes in the midget long jump and 6^th of 23 athletes in the 200m.
• In addition to her bronze medal wins in the shot put and javelin, Mariafinished 4^th in the discus.
• Jessica was 5^th of 13 athletes in the midget long jump and 7^th of 17 athletes in the 300m.
• In addition to winning the gold medal in the midget high jump, Kendallplaced 4^th in the 200m hurdles, 6^th in the long jump, and 7^th in the 80m hurdles.
• First-year midget Lauren Fridman finished 5^th of 12 athletes in the high jump.
• First-year midget Siri finished 5^th in the shot put, 7^th in the long jump, and 9^th of 17 athletes in the 300m.
• First-year midget Janessa was 6^th of 12 athletes in the high jump and 8^th of 17 athletes in the 300m.
• In addition to her bronze medal in the 80m hurdles, Emily finished 4^thof 12 athletes in the high jump.
• Bantam Dana finished 6^th of 22 athletes in the 80m and 8^th of 20 athletes in the 150m.
• First-year bantam Emma Chong was 4^th in the 80m hurdles, 4^th in the high jump, and 6^th of 21 athletes in the long jump.
• First-year bantam Mia was 7^th of 20 athletes in the 150m and 9^th of 22 athletes in the 80m.
• First-year bantam Heather was 11^th of 21 athletes in the long jump.
• Rui finished 4^th in both the midget long jump and discus.
• In addition to his silver medal in the high jump, Matthew Springer finished 5^th in the discus.
• First-year midget Tyler finished 6^th of 21 athletes in the 300m.
• In addition to his gold, silver and bronze medals, Alex Charlesworth finished 4^th of 15 athletes in the long jump and 6^th of 13 athletes in the 150m.
• Sean was 4^th in the 200m hurdles, 5^th in the 80m hurdles and 6^th in the 1200m.
• Nathan was 5^th of 10 athletes in the ball throw.
• In addition to her five top-three finishes, Alison Martin was 4^th in the 600m and 4^th in the standing long jump.

I was especially pleased that four JD athletes – Lauren Garnett, PatrickLyster, Rowan and Jackson – were willing to try the midget pentathlon. All were very successful with Patrick winning a silver medal, Lauren and Rowancapturing bronze medals and Jackson finishing fourth.

• In winning the bronze medal, Lauren finished the 100m in 14.73s, ran the 800m in 2:49.28s, an impressive time for an athlete whose longest race until then had been the 300m, cleared 1.30m in the high jump, a personal best of 5cm, cleared 3.66m in the long jump, and threw the shot 6.11m.
• In winning the silver medal, Patrick placed 1^st in the 100m in 13.47s, won the 1000m in 3:28.92s, cleared 1.30m in the high jump, cleared 4.37m in the long jump, a personal best of 77cm, and threw the shot 5.89m.
• In capturing the bronze medal, Rowan won the shot put with a throw of 8.07m and the high jump, where he cleared 1.39m, was 2^nd in the 100m where he finished in 13.55s, and 3^rd in the long jump, with a personal best jump of 4.27m.
• In placing 4^th, first-year midget Jackson ran a personal best in the100m and added another 11cm to his PB in the long jump.

Well done pentathletes! I hope you will all continue to compete in the combined events.

I was astonished at the improvement in the athletes’ results between this meet and even the most recent New Balance meet of just a week ago. Here are some of the most impressive personal best performances:

• The PB of the meet must surely go to Emma Martin who, not long after suffering a horrific fall at the finish line in the 150m, took an astonishing 25.79s off her PB in the 1200m, where she finished 1^st of eight bantam athletes in 4:06.89s. Emma also took 7.49s off her PB in the 800m, where she finished 2^nd of nine athletes in 2:31.10s, a very impressive time for a bantam. Emma also took more than half second off her PB in the 80m hurdles and in the 150m where, despite the fall, she finished 2^nd of twenty-two athletes in 20.91s.
• In addition to capturing four medals, Austin recorded four personal best performances. He added 10cm to his PB in the high jump, clearing 1.50m, and took more than 3 seconds off his PB in the 200m hurdles, finishing in 29.94s. Austin also added over a metre to his PB in the discus, with a throw of 20.42m, and another 13cm to his PB in the javelin, with a throw of 36.52m.
• Katie took an impressive 13.60s off her PB in the 1200m, where she finished 6^th of thirteen midget women in 4:04.97s, and also ran a PB in the 800m, where she finished 5^th of eleven athletes in 2:31.64s.
• Ellie competed in four running events and recorded personal bests in all of them – an impressive feat. In the 100m preliminary, Ellie took almost a second off her previous fastest time, finishing in 13.34s to qualify 8^th of thirty athletes for the final. In the 100m final, Ellie bettered her time again, finishing 5^th overall in 13.28s. In the 200m, Ellie took almost a second off her PB, finishing 6^th of 23 athletes in the preliminary in 27.55s. In the 300m, Ellie won the gold medal with a personal best time of 42.15s, a PB of over a second. Finally, in the 800m, Ellie finished in 2:34.90s, a PB of 4.99s.
• In addition to winning gold and bronze medals, Madelaine recorded six personal best performances, the most of any JD athlete at the meet. She added 1.71m to her PB in the shot put with a throw of 7.97m. Since the discus throw was not offered to bantams, Madelaine competed up with the midgets. Not one to be intimidated, Madelaine added 1.65m to her PB, recording a throw of 21.88m, which earned her the bronze medal.Madelaine also added more than half a metre to her PB in the long jump, took more than a second off her PB in the 150m, and more than half a second off her PB in the 80m. Last but not least, Madelaine ran a PB in the 80m hurdles.
• In qualifying for the 100m final, midget Nicholas took almost a full second off his PB in the 100m, finishing in 11.87s. Nicholas also ran a personal best of 25.67s in the 200 preliminaries and another personal best of 25.35s in the 200m final, where he finished 5^th. In the 300m, Nicholasran a personal best of 40.84s, a PB of over a second. Personal bests in every event – well done Nicholas!
• Eric took a remarkable 8.24s off his PB in the 800m, added another 27cm to his PB in the shot put, and added more than two metres to his PB in the discus.
• Maria added more than half a metre to her PB in the shot put, where her throw of 8.69m earned her the bronze medal.
• Lauren Garnett took almost a full second off her time in the 80m hurdles, where she finished 5^th of ten athletes in 14.85s.
• First-year midget Patrick Lyster added 77cm to his PB in the long jump, clearing 4.37m.
• First-year midget Tyler took almost a second off his PB in the 200m, where he finished 7^th in 25.76s. Tyler also ran a personal best in the 100m, where he just missed qualifying for the final, finishing 9^th of twenty-one athletes in 12.60s.
• In addition to capturing the silver medal in the discus, Scott McClure took an impressive 3 seconds off his PB in the 200m and almost half a second off his PB in the 100m.
• First-year midget Alex McDuffie took more than a second off his PB in the 200m, where he finished in 27.14s, and more than half a second off his PB in the 100m, where he finished in 13.24s.
• Bantam Alex Charlesworth added an impressive 4.33m to his PB in the ball throw, where he finished 1^st of ten athletes with a throw of 46.53m, and took almost a full second off his time in the 80m hurdles, where he finished 2^nd of eight athletes in 13.73s. Alex also ran a PB of 11.63s in the 80m and recorded a personal best of 4.24m in the long jump.
• Jessica took just under a second off her PB in the 200m, where she finished 11^th of twenty-three athletes in 28.77s. Jessica also ran a personal best in the 100m, where she finished in 13.82s.
• First-year midget Bailey took a second off her PB in the 80m hurdles, almost a second off her PB in the 100m, and more than two seconds off her PB in the 200m. PBs in all of your events – well done Bailey!
• Bantam Patrick Meister took more than a second and a half off his PB in the 150m, where he finished 8^th in 23.10s.
• First-year bantam Heather added another 4cm to her PB in the high jump, clearing 1.15m, and took more than a second off her PB in the 150m, where she finished in 23.94s.
• First-year midget Janessa took more than half a second off her PB in the 300m, where she finished 8^th of seventeen athletes in 46.09s, and also ran a PB of 13.94s in the 100m.
• Bantam Michael took almost a second and a half off his PB in the 800m.
• First-year midget Antha finished 12^th of thirty athletes in the 100m in 13.74s, a personal best of 1.31s. Antha also took almost half a second off her PB in the 200m and added an impressive 33cm to her PB in the shot put.
• Bantam Sean Thuna added more than half a metre to his PB in the long jump, clearing 3.81m. Sean also ran personal bests in the 80m, 80m hurdles, and the 200m hurdles.
• First-year bantam Mia added another 4cm to her PB in the high jump.
• First-year midget Matthew Schalm added another 1.89m to his PB in the discus with a throw of 25.43m, earning him the bronze medal.
• First-year midget Kendall added an impressive 15cm to her PB in the high jump, clearing 1.45m to capture the gold medal. Kendall also took more than a second off her PBs in both the 80m hurdles and 200m, where she finished in 15.24s and 30.19s respectively. Kendall also ran a personal best of 14.39s in the 100m and cleared a personal best 4.02m in the long jump.
• First-year bantam Ben added another 22cm to his PB in the ball throw, throwing the ball 33.72m.
• Kennedy took more than a second off her PB in the 100m and added another 35cm to the PB in long jump that she had established just a week earlier.
• First-year midget Lauren Fridman recorded personal bests in two of her running events, taking more that 2.5 seconds off her PB in the 200m and more than a second off her PB in the 800m.
• First-year midget Siri took just shy of a second off her PB in the 100m, where she finished in 14.04s, and added almost half a metre to her PB in the long jump, where she cleared 4.01m and finished 7^th of thirteen athletes.
• Lockie took almost a second off his time in the 80m and added 5cm to his PB in the high jump.
• First-year midget Emily took almost 4 seconds off her PB in the 200m, where she finished in 29.57s, and finished the 300m in 48.71s, a PB of over a second.
• Steph, one of our newest athletes, showed much improvement in a remarkably short time, taking almost a second off her PB in the 80m hurdles and adding another 18cm to her PB in the long jump.
• Bantam Anna demonstrated how much stronger she is becoming by competing in four events and recorded personal bests in all of them. Annatook almost half second off her PB in the 80m, more than a second off her PB in the 150m, added another 29cm to her PB in the long jump, and added an impressive 41cm to her PB in the shot put.
• First-year bantam Emma Chong added another 31cm to her PB in the long jump, clearing 3.65m.
• Another of our youngest athletes, first-year bantam Rhea, added 23cm to her PB in the long jump.
• After the disappointment of being disqualified from the 100m for a false start, Charlie came back to record a personal best of 30.13s in the 200m.
• Brent Bester added over half a metre to his PB in the long jump, more than a metre to his PB in the shot put, and took almost 3 seconds off his PB in the 1200m.
• Rui ran a personal best of 12.88 in the 100m, where he finished 13^thof twenty-one midget athletes, and a personal best of 26.51s in the 200m, where he finished 10^th of twenty athletes.
• In addition to recording a 5cm personal best of 1.55m in the high jump to win the silver medal, Matthew Springer took more than a second off his PB in the 300m.

Wow! Those are such impressive results. I warned you that this was an important meet and you certainly chose the right moment to produce such outstanding results. You should all be very proud of your results and especially proud of the fact that you were able to rise to the occasion. Congratulations to you all!

The JD athletes and coaches would like to thank the many parents who came out to cheer on the team. Your support is appreciated more than I can say. I would also like to thank the parents who helped me set up and take down the CALTAF tents, especially the Martin family for hauling the tents from Foothills to Glenmore. Thank you all!