JD Results from Indoor Games and Relays & Combined Events Provincial Championships

February 16, 2011
General News

I would like to offer my heartiest congratulations to the JD athletes – Martin, Brent, Nathan, Patrick, Sean, Sahad, Ben, Matt, Claudia, Antha, Quinn, Delainy, Jill, Sarah, Madelaine, Emma, Kate, Georgia, Mia, Heather, Kiannahand Grace – and Cheetah athletes – Rees Goertzen and Adeem Vasanji – who traveled to Edmonton this past weekend to compete in the Indoor Games and Relays & Combined Events Provincial Championships. Among them, these twenty-four athletes produced some outstanding results.

The JD athletes captured 37 Provincial Championship medals – 8 gold, 22 silver and 7 bronze. The two Cheetah athletes captured an impressive 4 provincial medals – 2 silver and 2 bronze. The clink from the medals around the athletes’ necks up in the stands and on the bus trip back to Calgary was most impressive! Well done JD and Cheetah athletes! A most impressive collection of medals!

Eight JD athletes returned to Calgary as Provincial Champions, having won a gold medal in a championship (relay or combined) event. Congratulations to Provincial Champions Claudia, Antha, Quinn, Sarah, Emma, Georgia, Mia and Grace.

Ben, Matt, Delainy, Jill, Madelaine, Rees and Adeem each captured a provincial silver medal, while Nathan, Patrick, Sean, Sahad, Emma, Georgia, and Mia each won two provincial silver medals, and Grace, one of our youngest athletes, brought home an impressive 3 provincial silver medals, Well done provincial silver medalists!

Martin, Sahad, Ben, Rees, Adeem, Matt, Claudia, Anthaand Quinn each won a provincial bronze medal. Well done provincial bronze medalists!

Nine JD athletes also captured EMOC (Edmonton Meet Organizing Committee) medals in non-championships (individual) events – Nathan, Patrick and Madelaine each won gold medals, Sean brought home a silver medal, Martin, Emma and Antha each captured a bronze medal, while Brentand Claudia each won two EMOC bronze medals. Well done EMOC medalists! This certainly bodes well for the Age Class Provincial Championships for individual events in March.

Despite the travel and the very early start each morning, the JD and Cheetah athletes certainly rose to the occasion. There were 37 personal best performances this weekend. Heather and Mialed the way with personal best performances in a very impressive four individual events. Well done Heather and Mia!Nathan, Antha and Madelaine each recorded personal bests in an also very impressive three individual events. Martin, Brent, Patrick, Claudia, Quinn and Kiannah each recorded two personal best performances, while Sean, Matt, Delainy, Sarah, Emma, Kate, Georgia, and Grace achieved a personal best in one of their individual events. Well done athletes! You should be very pleased with how much you have improved over the indoor season. It is good to see you being rewarded for your hard work.

Needless to say, there were many highlights during the meet. Here are some of my favourites:

  • The midget men’s 600m was run with the Masters (+55 yrs) men’s race. There was one Masters competitor and, when they had finished the race, midgets Patrick andSean waited politely at the finish line for the Masters competitor. The smile on the Masters face as Patrickshook his hand and Sean high-fived him was heartwarming. Well done Patrick and Sean! You made that gentleman’s day! I saw many other acts of good sportsmanship throughout the weekend, and I thank all athletes for being such fine ambassadors for CALTAF.
  • Muneerah and Shaynoor Vasanji, our chaperones for the weekend, commented several times on how polite and grateful the athletes were, and I must add that this group of athletes was a particular pleasure to travel with. They truly were a credit to their parents.
  • Our bantam girls’ 4x100m relay team of Mia toGeorgia to Grace to Emma captured the provincial gold medal in an outstanding 57.90s, finishing 1st of four teams. All three exchanges were very impressive, to the extent that two coaches from other clubs commented on how smooth they were. Well done provincial champions Mia, Georgia, Grace andEmma!
  • Our midget women’s 4x400m relay team of Antha toQuinn to Claudia to Sarah captured the gold medal in 4:45.73s. Well done provincial champions Antha, Quinn, Claudia and Sarah!
  • Our bantam girls’ 4x200m relay team of Mia toGeorgia to Grace to Emma finished 2nd of five teams in an impressive 2:01.47s, to capture the provincial silver medal. Well done provincial silver medalists Mia, Georgia, Grace and Emma!
  • Our midget men’s 4x200m relay team of Sean toSahad to Patrick to Nathan won the provincial silver medal, finishing 2nd of three teams in 2:07.53s. Well done provincial silver medalists Sean, Sahad, Patrickand Nathan!
  • Our bantams girls’ medley relay team of Mia (200m) toEmma (100m) to Georgia (100m) to Grace (400m) finished 2nd of three teams in 2:13.07s. Well done ladies! You proved to be a formidable team, collecting one gold and two silver provincial relay medals. Well done Mia, Emma, Georgia and Grace! An outstanding achievement!
  • Our bantam boys’ medley relay team of JD athletes Ben(200m) to Matt (100m) to Cheetah athletes Adeem(100m) to Rees (400m) captured the provincial silver medal, a remarkable achievement given that the two Cheetah athletes were peewees competing up as bantams. These young athletes finished 2nd of three teams in 2:15.71s. Well done provincial silver medalistsBen, Matt, Adeem and Rees! A special thank you toRees and Adeem for agreeing to compete up with the two bantams, who otherwise would not have been able to compete in the relays – especially Rees (and his family!) who traveled all the way to Edmonton just to compete in the relays.
  • The midget men’s 4x400m relay was a tad controversial, with the team of CALTAF PD athletesAbtin Motamedi to Tyler Sklenka to JD athletesMartin to Sahad being disqualified for cutting in too soon. There was some debate as to whether it was actually the younger CALTAF midget team of Patrickto Nathan to Sean to Sahad who should have been disqualified. In the end, Patrick, Nathan, Sean andSahad were awarded the provincial silver medals, finishing 2nd of three teams in 4:58.73s.
  • To compensate for being disqualified in the 4x400m, the team of PD athletes Abtin (400m) to Tyler (200m) to JD athletes Martin (200m) to Sahad (800m) made no mistake in the medley relay, where they captured the bronze medal, finishing 3rd of five teams in 4:41.68s. Well done provincial bronze medalists Abtin, Tyler, Martin and Sahad! In that same race, our younger team of Brent (400m) to Sean (200m) to Nathan(200m) to Patrick (800m) finished not far behind in 5:00.99s. Well done boys!
  • Our midget women’s 4x400m relay team of Delainy toJill to Madelaine to bantam Grace won the provincial silver medal. While there were only two teams entered, the girls certainly earned their silver medals by finishing in 5:00.88s, an impressive time given that the team consisted of three first-year midgets and a first-year bantam. Well done provincial silver medalists Delainy, Madelaine, Jill and Grace!
  • Our midget women’s medley relay team of Quinn(400m) to Antha (200m) to Emily (200m) to Claudia(800m) claimed the bronze medal, finishing 3rd of five teams in 4:45.31s. Well done provincial bronze medalists Quinn, Antha, Emily and Claudia! Our younger team of Sarah to Delainy to Madelaine to Jillfinished just out of the medals in 4th place in 5:01.46s. Well done first-year midgets!
  • Our bantam boys 4x200m relay team of Cheetahs Rees Goertzen to Adeem Vasanji to JD athletes Matt toBen finished 3rd of four teams in 2:11.45s, an excellent time given that Rees and Adeem are peewees who were running up as bantams. Well done provincial bronze medalists Rees, Adeem, Matt and Ben!
  • The personal best performance of the meet must go toKate, who took an astonishing 18.33s off the PB in the 600m that she had established just last month at the Dino Classic. Well done Kate! An impressive effort!
  • Bantams Mia and Heather showed remarkable improvement at this meet, leading the JD Group with personal best performances in four of their individual events. Mia ran a PB in the 60m, finishing 7th of thirty-three athletes in 9.07s. Mia also added another 5cm to her PB in the high jump, clearing 1.25m, another 44cm to her PB in the long jump, where she cleared 3.96m to finish 5th, and another 49cm to her PB in the shot put, where she finished 4th of thirty-five athletes with a throw of 7.02m. Well done Mia! Heather took an impressive 17.28s off her PB in the 600m, where she finished in 2:06.60s. Heather also added over a metre to her PB in the shot put, with a throw of 4.36m, added 3cm to her PB in the long jump, where she cleared 3.49m to finish 8th, and ran a PB in the 60m, where she finished in 9.71s. Well done Heather!
  • Surprisingly, by far the most impressive running of the weekend came towards the end of the day on Sunday, when the athletes were definitely feeling the effects of all the relays and two days of tough competition. The bantam girls and Matt decided that they were going to challenge themselves in the 600m and spent a considerable amount of time with Juerg and me, studying the pace charts for the 600m and considering how fast they could run the event. The result was some remarkable personal best performances. Kate led the way, taking a remarkable 18.33s off her PB, whileHeather took 17.28s off her PB, Kiannah 15.8s, Matt15.73s, Georgia 7.44s and Emma 4.69s. The fastest time of all was run by first-year bantam and new athleteGrace, who was entered in the 600m for the first time.Grace finished 6th of twenty-nine athletes in 2:02.76s, an outstanding time for a first-year bantam. Well done ladies and Matt! It was wonderful to see you so motivated in the 600m, especially given how tired you were.
  • I suspect that first-year midget Nathan surprised himself in the midget high jump, where he won the gold medal, clearing 1.40m, a PB of 5cm. Well doneNathan!
  • First-year midget Patrick ran a very solid race in the midget 600m, winning the gold medal in 1:53.69s, a PB of just shy of four seconds. Well done Patrick! In that same race, first-year midget Sean finished in 1:59.46s to claim the silver medal, a personal best of 6.32s. Well done Sean!
  • Midget Claudia demonstrated her strength in the distance races by capturing the bronze medals in both the midget 1000m and 1200m. Claudia finished the 1200m in 4:02.84s, a personal best of 9.93s, and the 1000m in 3:20.25s, a personal best of 2.93s. Well doneClaudia! Impressive running!
  • Midget Brent was also a double bronze winner, capturing the bronze medal in the long jump, where he cleared 3.86m, a PB of over half a metre, and in the high jump, where he cleared 1.25m, a PB of 5cm. Well done Brent! Great jumping!
  • New athlete Martin ran a personal best time of 42.56s in the preliminary of the midget 300m to qualify 2nd of twelve athletes for the final, where he captured the bronze medal. Martin also ran a personal best 8.21s in the 60m, where he finished 9th of nineteen athletes and just missed qualifying for the final. Well done Martin!
  • First-year midget Madeline continues to dominate the shot put event, finishing 1st of eight athletes and capturing the gold medal with a throw of 8.72m, a PB of 67cm. On Sunday, Madelaine tackled the challenging pentathlon for the first time, finishing 7thwith 1627 points. During the pentathlon. Madelaineadded another 5cm to her PB in the high jump and took an impressive 4.42s off her PB in the dreaded 800m, which comes at the end of the grueling event. Well done Madelaine!
  • In her very first high jump competition, bantam and JD captain Emma cleared a remarkable 1.35m to finish 3rd of thirty athletes and capture the bronze medal. Well done Emma!
  • JD Captain Antha had an outstanding weekend, capturing the bronze medal in the midget long jump with a personal best jump of 4.24m, qualifying 4th of seventeen athletes in the 60m with a personal best 8.60s and, for the third meet in a row, running a personal best in the 300m, where she finished just out of the medals in 4th place in 44.85s. Well done Antha!
  • In her first out-of-town meet, Quinn ran PBs in both of her events, qualifying 6th of seventeen for the final in the midget 60m with a personal best 8.65s. Quinn also ran a personal best 47.88s in the 300m, where she just missed qualifying for the final. Well done Quinn!
  • Our newest athlete, first-year midget Jill, who was competing in her first meet, recorded some impressive results. In the 600m, Jill finished 7th in 1:54.96s, while in the challenging 1200m, Jill also finished 7th in 4:15.28s. Well done Jill!
  • First-year midget Sarah impressed her coaches by finishing 4th of nine athletes with 1842 points in the challenging midget pentathlon. Her result was especially impressive given that Sarah had never competed in the long jump, high jump or shot put prior to the meet. Sarah‘s 7th in the 60m, 6th in the long jump, 5th in the shot put, 4th in the high jump and 4th in the 800m placed her 4th overall in the pentathlon. In addition to her impressive result in the pentathlon,Sarah placed 6th in the 1000m, finishing in 3:35.13s, a personal best by 8.18s. Well done Sarah! An outstanding weekend!
  • Despite the fact that the JD athletes have had little opportunity to practice the long jump this indoor season, first-year midgets Delainy and Nathan recorded personal bests in the event. Delainy added an impressive 25cm to her PB, clearing 3.47m, whileNathan added 29cm to his PB, clearing 3.82m. Well done Delainy and Nathan!

Congratulations again to our medal winners and to those of you who achieved a personal best this past weekend. You should be very proud of your results. Well done!

On behalf of the athletes and coaches, I would like to thankMuneerah and Shaynoor Vasanji for generously giving up their weekend to accompany the team to Edmonton as chaperones. The athletes and I were most grateful for your assistance. I would also like to thank the Cheetah and JD parents who traveled to Edmonton. The athletes and coaches are most grateful for your continued support and enthusiasm.

If any parents have photos from the weekend, please email copies to me and I will, with your permission, have them posted on the CALTAF website. For past photos, see caltaf.com.

I’ll see you tomorrow at the Talisman for long jump. Robin

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