Hello athletes and parents!
I spoke to Marissa earlier today and am delighted to let you know that she is now recovering at home following her surgery yesterday/Monday. She is most grateful to her JD teammates for their support.
Congratulations to Matthew Schalm, Martin, Brent, Nathan, Patrick, Sean, Sahad, Harry, Ben, Matt Voglewede, Claudia, Antha, Quinn, Jill, Lauren Kruger, Meghan, Sarah, Madelaine, Emma, Kate, Georgia, Mia, Kiannah, Caitlin, Grace, Cam and Lauren Yardley, who travelled to Edmonton this past weekend to compete at the Alberta Indoor Track and Field Championships. Among them, these twenty-seven young athletes produced some impressive results.
The fourteen JD midget athletes captured 8 provincial medals, 2 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze, while the twelve JD bantams collected 14 top-ten ribbons.
I would like to begin by congratulating JD’s Provincial Champions, Madelaine and MatthewSchalm. Madelaine won the gold medal in the midget women’s shot put, finishing 1st of eighteen athletes with a personal best throw of 8.88m, a PB of 18cm. Matthew captured the gold medal in his very first weight throw competition, finishing 1st of eight midget men with a throw of 9.56m. Congratulations to our Provincial Champions, Madelaine and Matthew – an outstanding achievement. Well done!
Six JD midget athletes captured provincial silver or bronze medals. Claudia and Antha won provincial silver medals, while Meghan, Sahad, Matthew and Madelaine captured provincial bronze medals. Congratulations provincial medalists and in particular to our double medal winners,Matthew and Madelaine!
Bantams Harry, Ben, Mia, Georgia, Caitlin, Grace and Lauren Yardley each won ribbons for placing in the top ten in one or more bantam events. The overall standings in the bantam multiple events are not yet posted. As soon as the overall bantam medal winners for Saturday and Sunday are announced, I will forward an update.
Despite the travel, outrageously early starts each morning, and the loss of an hour’s sleep on Saturday night due to the time change, the athletes performed very well. There were an impressive 52 personal best performances this weekend. Bantam Kate led the way, recording personal bests in all six of her events. Well done Kate! An outstanding achievement! Not far behind, were Matt Voglewede, Grace, Sarah and Georgia, who each achieved personal bests in four events. Antha, Madelaine, Caitlin and Lauren Yardley recorded three personal bests, whileHarry, Ben, Meghan, Emma, Kiannah and Cam each achieved two personal bests. MatthewSchalm, Martin, Nathan, Sean, Sahad and Mia all contributed to the PB tally by achieving a personal best in one of their events. Well done athletes! Given how tired you were, that is an impressive list of personal best performances! What an outstanding end to the indoor season. Your hard work over the past few months is clearly evident in the results. Well done!
There were many highlights during the meet. Here are my favourites:
- The meet had barely begun when the JD athletes received their first compliment from an official. An official took the time to come over and thank Caitlin, Grace, Lauren, Kateand Georgia for their promptness and attentiveness at the high jump. With forty-one athletes in the bantam girls’ high jump, the official was grateful for their consideration. Well done ladies! Later, a second high jump official offered his thanks to the JD bantam boys, Matt, Ben and Harry, the only athletes of the 26 boys in the competition who took the time to shake his hand and thank him for his time. He was most impressed! Well done gentlemen! I witnessed many acts of good sportsmanship during the weekend.Sahad was the only competitor in the midget men’s 2000m to stay at the finish line long enough to congratulate the athlete who finished last. Sarah took the time to shake hands with each of her opponents at the end of the 200m. Georgia and Emma could be heard cheering wildly for teammate Matt as he ran the 150m. Georgia raced to the finish line to high-five Harry after his 800m…just a few of the many acts of kindness I witnessed during the weekend. Well done athletes! Thank you for being such fine ambassadors for CALTAF.
- With so many athletes competing in so many events and the coaches trying to keep up with them, the JD athletes were forced to be very independent this weekend. I was impressed to look over at one point and see Sean completing a full warm-up without any supervision or prompting. Later, Coach Melissa and I were astonished to witness LaurenYardley, Grace and Caitlin completing a cool-down jog after their 800m. It is rare indeed to find JD athletes cooling down after an event unless the coaches have chased after the athletes and reminded them to do so. Well done athletes!
- In addition to his gold medal in the weight throw, midget athlete Matthew Schalm captured the bronze medal in the shot put, with a throw of 9.97m, a personal best of 1.58m. Well done Matthew!
- To compliment her gold medal in the shot put, Madelaine won the bronze medal in her very first weight throw competition, finishing 3rd of twelve athletes with a throw of 7.37m. In addition to her gold and bronze medals, Madelaine recorded three personal bests at the meet – in the 60m, 200m and the shot put. Well done Madelaine – an outstanding meet!
- Midget athlete Claudia demonstrated her strength in the distance events by capturing the provincial silver medal in the midget women’s 2000m, finishing just out of the medals in 4th place in the 1200m, and placing 8th in her first attempt at the 800m. In the 2000m, Claudia finished 2nd of twelve athletes in 7:04.47s. In the 1200m, Claudiafinished 4th of twenty-one athletes in 4:03.68s. Finally, in the 800m, despite having run the 2000m earlier in the day, Claudia finished 8th of twenty-one athletes in 2:34.20s. Well done Claudia – provincial silver medalist!
- As she had done in February at the Indoor Games, Antha impressed her coaches at this meet. In the long jump, Antha added another 18cm to her PB, clearing 4.42m to finish 2nd of twenty-five midget women and capture the provincial silver medal. Antha ran a personal best 8.51s in the 60m preliminary to qualify 10th of thirty-three midget women for the semi-final, where she ran 8.59s and just missed qualifying for the final. In the 200m timed finals, Antha took almost a full second off her PB, finishing 7th of twenty-six athletes in 28.11s. In the 300m, Antha finished 6th of eighteen athletes in 45.71s. A provincial silver medal, 6th and 7th place finishes, and three personal bests – well doneAntha!
- Coach Lou will be impressed to learn that new athlete Meghan walked away with the bronze medal in her very first 60m hurdles competition. Meghan finished 3rd of six midget women in 11.09s. In the 60m, Meghan ran a personal best 8.44s in the preliminary to qualify 8th of thirty-three athletes for the semi-final. In the semi-final,Meghan ran another personal best, finishing 6th of eighteen athletes in 8.26s, an impressive time for a first-year midget. In the final, Meghan finished 5th of eight athletes in 8.39s. In her first attempt at the 200m, Meghan finished in an impressive 27.87s, which placed her 5th of twenty-five athletes. Well done Meghan! A provincial bronze medal and two fifth place finishes at your first provincial championships – an impressive showing, particularly for a first-year midget!
- Sahad added to the provincial medal collection that he started at the Indoor Games in February by winning the bronze medal in the midget men’s 2000m, where he finished in 7:20.39s. In the 1200m, Sahad took an astonishing 14.1s off the PB that he had established in January at the Dino Classic, finishing in 4:04.90s. A provincial bronze medal in one event and an outstanding improvement in another. Well done Sahad!
- Amongst the 52 personal best performances, there were some standouts (in addition to those mentioned above). First-year midget Sarah took an impressive 20.70s off her PB in the 1200m, where she finished in 4:21.44s. Bantam Kate took almost a full second off her PB in the 150m, while Lauren and Grace each took just over half a second off their PBs. Meghan and Cam took almost half a second off their PBs in the 60m. As they had done at the Indoor Games in February, all of the bantam girls who ran the 600m recorded a personal best. Lauren took 9.54s off her PB, while Grace improved her PB by 7.46s, Cam by 4.37s, Mia 4.29s, Emma 4.19s and Georgia 1.62s. Not to be outdone by the girls, bantam Matt improved his PB in the 600m by 4.21s. Bantam Harry took 4.67s off his PB in the 800m. Bantam Ben added 70cm to his PB in the shot put while, in the same event, bantam Georgia added just over half a metre to her PB. In the high jump, Matt, Kate and Grace all added 10cm to their PBs. In the long jump, Grace led the way by adding 49cm to her PB, while Emma added 35cm, Georgia 32cm, Nathan30cm, Kate 29cm, and Sarah 25cm.
- National Development Coach Christine Laverty, who is the distance coach for CALTAF’s high school and university-aged athletes, was most impressed with the bantam 600m and 800m races. She is very pleased that the JD Group has a core group of young athletes that seems to enjoy and does very well in the middle distance races. She was especially pleased to watch Lauren Yardley, Grace, Mia, Caitlin and Georgiaattempting to sprint out to the front and take the lead in their races. First-year bantamGrace finished an impressive 5th of forty-two athletes in the 600m in 1:55.30s whileCaitlin was 6th in 1:58.43s. In the bantam boys’ 600m, Harry finished 6th of twenty-five athletes in 1:59.19s, while Ben was 8th in 1:59.81s. In the bantam boys’ 800m, Harryfinished 7th of twenty-two athletes in a personal best 2:43.81s. Harry, who thrives during the cross-country season, is the only JD athlete I can ever recall complaining that the 800m is too short – a comment which baffled and horrified his fellow JD 800m runners. JIn the bantam girls’ 800m, Grace finished 5th of thirty-one athletes in 2:47.61s, while first-year bantam Lauren finished 8th in 2:51.43s, and Caitlin was 9th in 2:51.50s. Well done bantam 600m and 800m runners!
- Bantam Mia demonstrated her strength in the throwing events at this meet, finishing 2ndof fifty athletes in med ball with a throw of 6.04m, and 6th of forty-eight athletes in the shot put with a throw of 6.95m. Mia showed what a well-rounded athlete she is by also finishing 9th of forty-one athletes in the high jump, 14th of forty-four athletes in the 150m and 15th of forty-four athletes in the long jump. Well done Mia!
- I suspect that Georgia surprised herself by finishing 1st of her JD bantam teammates in both the 60m and 150m. In the 150m, Georgia finished 10th of forty-four athletes in a personal best 22.53s, while she was 12th of forty-six athletes in the 60m. Well doneGeorgia!
- In his first long jump competition, Martin qualified for the final and finished 8thof twenty midget athletes, clearing 4.64m. Martin also took more than half a second off his PB in the 300m, where he finished 8th of seventeen athletes in 42.05s. Well done Martin!
- First-year midget Sean finished just out of the medals in 4th place in the 60m hurdles, in a personal best 12.07s. Well done Sean!
- In addition to his 6th and 7th place finishes in the 600m and 800m, Harry also finished 5th of thirty athletes in the bantam shot put with a throw of 7.26m. Several other bantam athletes placed in the top ten in multiple events. Like Harry, Mia finished in the top ten in three events – the high jump (9th), med ball (2nd) and the shot put (6th). Grace was 5th in both the 600m and 800m, while Caitlin was 6th in the 600m and 9th in the 800m, and Ben was 8th in the 600m and 9th in the med ball throw. Other top ten finishers were Lauren who was 8th in the 800m and Georgia who was 10th in the 150m. Well done bantams!
- First-year midget Jill demonstrated her strength in the distance races by placing 7th in the 2000m, 13th in the 1200m and 15th in the 800m. Well done Jill!
- JD’s newest athlete, Lauren Kruger, who was competing at her first meet, looked remarkably composed out on the track, where she ran very strong races in both the 60m and 300m. Well done Lauren!
What a great way to finish the indoor season. It was a pleasure watching you all compete. I am looking forward to the outdoor season.
My sincerest thanks to chaperones Garry Thuna, Virginia Lim and Beverly Wilson, who gave up their weekend to accompany the team to Edmonton. I would not have survived without you. I am most grateful for all that you did on behalf of the athletes and coaches. I would also like to thank the parents who travelled to Edmonton – May Hull, Micki Chong, Rob Knowles, Kate Culman, Jean and Jack Yee, Victor and Sherri Kalmakoff, Shaynoor and Muneerah Vasanji, Carol Matsuoka, Chris Voglewede, Rosalyn and Kerk Hilton, and Barb and Travis Kruger.The athletes and coaches are most grateful for your continued support.
I have once again attached the outdoor season information, which includes the tentative JD outdoor training schedule and a list of outdoor meet dates. Please mark your calendars. The JD Group will remain indoors and continue on our current indoor training schedule until we move outdoors sometime in April, whenever the weather will allow it. I will give you plenty of notice before we move outdoors.
For those JD athletes who attend Coach Kim’s Thursday high jump sessions, please note that there will be no session this Thursday, 17th March.
Please note that the JD Group will not be holding training sessions during the school Spring Break and Easter as follows:
Spring Break Monday 28th March – no session
Spring Break Wednesday 30th March – no session
Spring Break Thursday 31st March – no session
Easter Monday 25th April – no session
Coach Ed and I will see you Wednesday at the Talisman. Robin
