Report from Robin:
I would like to offer my congratulations to the following JD athletes – Adrianne, Nicky, Kelly Ann, Ryan, Sam Babcock, Alex Bymoen, Alex Smith and Scott – who were selected to represent Alberta in the Midget Dual against Team Saskatchewan on 29th and 29th June. Being named to a provincial team is a huge accomplishment. Well done! I have been told that the CALTAF JD Group has the largest contingent of athletes on Team Alberta. The complete team roster will be posted on the Athletics Alberta website shortly.
Here are the events that the Team Alberta athletes from our group will be competing in:
Adrianne – 1500, 3000, 80mh, 300mh, 4x400m
Nicky – 80mh, 4x100m relay, HJ, LJ, 100m
Kelly Ann – 300mh, 80mh, 400m, HJ or LJ, 4x400m relay
Ryan – 100, 200, 4x100m relay, HJ, LJ
Sam Babcock– 100, 200, 4x100m relay, HJ, LJ
Alex Bymoen– 100, 4x100m relay, SP, DIS, JAV
Alex Smith– 100mh, 300mh, 4x100m relay, LJ
Scott – SP, DIS, JAV
We look forward to watching you compete at the Midget Dual. Good luck and have fun.
Results from the CALTAF Classic
Congratulations to the forty-one athletes – Alex Bymoen, Alex Saizew, Alex Smith, Allison, Anders, Austin, Billy, Brian, Bryce, Chris, Claire, Clio, Daniel, Drew, Ellen, Hannah, Heather, Hunter, Imogen, Jane,Jasmine, Jennifer, John, Juliet, Kelly Ann, Kryton, Lisa, Meghan, Nicky, Nicole, Rebecca, Reed, Rhykel, Ryan, Sam Babcock, Sam Keen, Scott, Sean, Sofia, Stuart and Thomas – who participated in the CALTAF Classic this past weekend. Among them, these athletes earned 49 PBs (personal bests), 1 provincial record, 8 gold medals, 17 silver medals and 11 bronze medals. Well done athletes!
The 4x100m midget relay team of Sam Babcock to Alex Smith to Alex Bymoen to Ryan McKay beat the provincial record of 45.40s that had stood since 1985 – 23 years! – long before any of them were born! They established a new record of 45.25s. Well done boys! A remarkable accomplishment!
Sam Babcock led the way this weekend with the provincial record in the 4x100m, 3 gold medals and one silver medal. Sam won the gold medal in the long jump with a PB jump of 6.02m, making Sam the first JD athlete to jump over 6 metres. His jump also beat the 5.79m standard required for Legion Nationals. Sam also won gold medals in the high jump, clearing 1.70m and the 200m, where Sam finished in a time of 23.76s, bettering the Legion standard of 23.82s. Sam also won the silver medal in the 100m with a time of 11.63s and finished 6th in the shot put. Well done Sam!
Alex Smith had another outstanding weekend. In addition to running the 2nd leg for the 4x100m relay team, Alex won one gold, two silver and a bronze medal in his individual events. In the 300m hurdles,Alex finished in 1st place in a PB time of 41.63s, once again beating the standard of 43.87s required to qualify for Legion Nationals. Alex won the silver medal in the 100m hurdles, finishing in a PB time of 14.83s, faster than the 15.25s required for Legion Nationals. Alex also won a silver medal in the high jump, tying with teammate Ryan by clearing 1.63m. Finally, in the long jump, Alex jumped 5.48m to capture the bronze medal. Well done Alex!
Although still a first-year midget and having to compete against older athletes, Alex Bymoen came away from the meet with the provincial record in the 4x100m, where he ran the 3rd leg, and a silver and two bronze medals. Alex won the silver medal in the javelin with a throw of 32.80m. Alex won the bronze medal in the 100m with a time of 11.83s, giving CALTAF a clean sweep of the medals with Ryan in 1st, Sam in 2nd and Alex in 3rd. It was an impressive 100m final for CALTAF, with 6 of the 8 spots in the final being taken by JD athletes. Lots of white singlets! Well done boys! Alex won the bronze medal in the discus with a toss of 30.38, just under his PB of 30.55m. Alex was 4th in the long jump with a PB jump of 5.46m and was also 4th in the shot put, with a throw of 10.24m. Alex was 3rd in the 200m after the preliminaries, but we scratched him from the final because of a sore knee that he acquired with…….(insert a sigh from the coach here!!)…..a victory leap at the finish line of the Father’s Day Race! Well done Alex! Take care of that knee!
Ryan also had an outstanding weekend. He anchored the record-setting 4x100m relay team and also won one gold and two silver medals. Ryan won the 100m in a time of 11.50s, beating the standard of 11.61s required for Legion Nationals. Ryan tied with teammate Alex Smith for 2nd in the high jump, clearing 1.63m. Ryan also won the silver medal in the long jump with a jump of 5.57m. Well done Ryan!
Despite the fact that she is a first year midget and competing against older athletes, Nicky came away from the meet with four individual medals. She won the silver medal in the 80m hurdles with a PB time of 12.84s, beating the 12.97s standard required for Legion Nationals. Nicky also won the silver medal in the high jump, clearing 1.50m. In the shot put, Nicky won the bronze medal with a PB throw of 9.43m. Nicky also captured the bronze medal in the javelin, with a throw of 25.13m – a PB of 7.63m!! Nicky was also 5th of 18 athletes in the 200m, 6th of 20 athletes in the 100m and 6th in the long jump. Well done Nicky!
Scott once again led the throwers, winning the gold medal in the javelin with a throw of 33.65m and capturing the silver medal in the shot put with a throw of 10.32m. Scott also took an impressive 10.18s off his PB in the 400m to finish 10th and ran a PB in the 200m. Well done Scott!
Austin, one of our bantam athletes, also produced some excellent results, winning gold, silver and bronze medals in his individual events. Austin won the gold medal in the shot put, with a throw of 8.59m, a PB of almost a metre. Austin also won the silver medal in the 80m hurdles and the bronze medal in high jump, where he jumped a PB height of 1.20m.
Rebecca, another of our bantam athletes, won two silver and two bronze medals in her individual events. She added another 10cm to her PB in long jump, jumping 4.33m to win the silver medal. Rebeccaalso added another 42cm to her PB in the shot put, throwing 8.23m to capture the silver medal. In the 100m, Rebecca finished 3rd of 15 athletes to win the bronze medal and also won the bronze medal in the 200m, where she finished 3rd of 17 athletes. Since there was no javelin competition for bantams, we had Rebecca, who has demonstrated a talent for the javelin throw, compete up with the midgets. She rose to the occasion, adding another 2.35m to her PB and placing 4th with a throw of 21.08m. Well done Rebecca!
Despite only competing in two events this weekend, first-year midget Kelly Ann still managed to walk away with a gold medal. She easily won the 300m hurdles, finishing in her PB time of 50.04s. Kelly Annwas also 10th of eighteen athletes in the 200m. Well done Kelly Ann!
Allison added to her medal collection by winning two more medals at the Classic. She won the silver medal in the 100m, finishing 2nd of 15 bantam athletes in a time of 13.77s. Allison also won the silver medal in the bantam 200m, finishing 2nd of 17 athletes. Allison was also 6th of 16 athletes in the long jump. Well done Allison!
First-year midget Bryce had another excellent meet, capturing two bronze medals in his individual events and establishing three new PBs. He took almost two seconds off his PB in the 300m hurdles, finishing in 49.19s to win the bronze medal. In his first attempt at the 3000m, Bryce won the bronze medal. Bryce also improved his PBs in both the 100m hurdles, where he finished 4th and in the 400m, where he finished 8th. Well done Bryce!
Billy decided to surprise his coaches this weekend by entering the 1500m. Prior to the Classic, Billy had never competed in any race longer than the 400m. It seems it was a good choice! Billy impressed his coaches by winning the silver medal with a great kick to the finish and a time of 4:56.03s. Billy was also 4th in the 300m hurdles and 6th in the long jump with a PB jump of 5.28m. Billy took a full second off his PB in the 200m to finish 7th of 21 athletes in a time of 26.41s. Well done Billy!
First-year midget Sean had an excellent meet, establishing two new PBs and winning the silver medal in the 3000m. Sean took an impressive 8.99s off his PB in the 800m to finish 7th in 2:36.67s and 2.17s off his PB in the 1500m to finish 6th in 5:22.37s. Well done Sean!
Stuart demonstrated his strength in the throws events at this meet. He won the bronze medal in the javelin with a throw of 32.67m, a PB of 1.01m. Stuart also added another 2.39m to his PB in the discus, throwing 26.25m to finish 5th. Stuart was also 5th in his first shot put competition, throwing 9.90m. Well done Stuart!
Juliet, one of our newest athletes, who was competing in her first meet, walked away with the silver medal in the javelin. Despite being a first-year midget and having never thrown a javelin before, Julietfinished 2nd with a throw of 28.57m. Juliet was also 4th of nine athletes in the shot put with a throw of 8.47m. Well done Juliet!
One of the most impressive displays of grit and determination of the weekend came from Hannah on Friday evening. Despite howling winds, torrential rain, huge puddles and bruising hail, Hannah still managed to take more than 20 seconds off her PB in the 3000m to finish 4th. Hannah also took more than 5 seconds off her PB in the 800m to finish 6th in a time of 2:30.81s. Just to demonstrate her versatility, Hannah also added another 1.96m to her PB in the discus. Well done Hannah!
Daniel added over half a metre to his PB in the shot put to finish 7th, an excellent showing for a first-year midget. Daniel was also 7th in the discus, where he threw 21.61m, a PB of almost 5 metres. Danielwas also 6th in his first high jump competition.
Alex Saizew demonstrated how much faster she is becoming by running PBs in both the 200m and 400m. Alex also finished 4th in the high jump and established a new PB in the shot put, where she finished 6th.
Although a new athlete, Anders qualified for the final in the 100m, where he finished 7th of 18 athletes. Anders also ran a PB of 26.94s in the 200m to finish 10th of 21 athletes and was 7th of 14 athletes in his first 400m competition.
Chris added another 10cm to his PB in high jump to finish 4th, clearing 1.55m. Chris was also 7th in the long jump, with a PB jump of 4.92m. Reed ran a PB of 13.33s in the 100m. Brian ran a PB of 19.81s in the 100m hurdles to finish 5th. Hunter ran a PB in the 100m and added almost a metre to his PB in the discus. First-year midget Sam Kean qualified for the 100m final, where he ran a PB of 13.52s to finish 8th. Thomas took almost a second off his PB in the 200m and showed great determination in all seven of the events in which he competed. Kryton demonstrated how much stronger he is becoming by establishing new PBs in both the 100m and 200m. In her first 100m competition, first year midget Claire finished 16th. Heather added another 18cm to her PB in the long jump. First-year midget Nicole ran a PB of 13.55 in the 100m final to finish 7th and was 5th in the shot put with a PB throw of 8.04m. Lisa added another 40cm to her PB in the long jump to finish 9th. Sofia demonstrated how much faster and stronger she is becoming by establishing new PBs in both the 200m and the long jump. Sofia also finished 5th of 12 athletes in the high jump. Ellen was 8th in the midget 800m and 5th in the 1500m.Imogen did very well in her first long jump competition. Meghan continues to make a strong comeback while Jennifer, one of our newest athletes, continues to get stronger. Despite a near fall in the 80m hurdles, Jane managed to recover well and finish in 4th place. Rhykel impressed his coaches by trying a wide variety of events this weekend. It was great to have Clio back amongst us for the competition. We look forward to her return to our training sessions!
Our relay teams added to the medal haul.
Along with their new provincial record, Sam Babcock, Alex Smith, Alex Bymoen and Ryan took home the gold medal in the midget 4x100m. The team of Billy to Chris to Scott to Bryce won the silver medal in that same race. The team of Reed to Brian to Rhykel to Austin was disqualified.
In the midget women’s 4x100m relay, the team of Claire to Alex Saizew to Juliet to Heather won the gold medal while the team of Nicky to Nicole to Imogen to Allison was disqualified.
In the 4x400m relay, the JD Group entered both a women’s and men’s team. Since they were the only two teams entered in any age category, the officials threw them in a heat together, so it became a race between the men and the women. I think I have discovered a way to make the athletes run faster in our training sessions!! The team of Anders to Scott to Thomas to Bryce had to work hard to stay ahead of the team of Hannah to Ellen to Meghan to Allison. I suspect that all eight athletes ran a 400m PB. Both teams were awarded a gold medal for their efforts.
Outstanding results! Well done athletes! I look forward to watching you compete at the Provincial Championships and Midget Dual.
Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered at the Classic. Without your help, the meet could not have taken place. Thank you for giving so generously of your time. Thank you also to Marnie andJolene, who worked ridiculously long hours both before and during the meet to ensure that the Classic was a success. The JD athletes and I owe you huge debt of gratitude.
