I would like to offer my heartiest congratulations to all of the athletes – Adrianne, Alex Bymoen,Allison Stephen, Austin, Bryce, Chanelle, Chris, Daniel, Drew, Jasmine, John, Kelly Ann,Melissa, Nicky, Nicole, Rebecca, Rhykel, Sarah Hughes, Sean Foster, Thomas Kellner andThomas Wood – who competed at the Rocky Mountain Relays and Alberta Provincial Championships this past weekend In Medicine Hat. Among them, these 21 athletes produced some outstanding results. Here are the highlights:
· Fifteen CALTAF athletes were named to the team that will represent Alberta at the upcoming Western Canadian Midget Championships in Medicine Hat on 11th and 12th July. Congratulations to Team Alberta members: Adrianne, Alex Bymoen, Allison Stephen,Austin, Bryce, Chris, Daniel, Jasmine, John, Kelly Ann, Melissa, Nicky, Nicole, Sarahand Sean. I know that, for most of you, this is the first time that you will be representing Alberta at a provincial competition. This is a huge accomplishment and one that you should be very proud of. Rebecca was also offered a place on Team Alberta, but had to decline because she will be away on holiday at the time of the Championships. Athletes were selected to the team based on performance at the trials, dedication/hard work and attitude.
· The fifteen CALTAF athletes who were named to Team Alberta came from three of the CALTAF Groups: Power and Speed, Middle/Long Distance and Junior Development. It is a great credit to CALTAF that one quarter of the team of sixty midget athletes are members of CALTAF. The club will be well represented at the Midget Championships.
· This group of 21 athletes won 48 Alberta Provincial Championship midget medals – 9 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze.
Gold medal winners and Alberta Provincial Champions include: Bryce in the 200m hurdles and pole vault, Kelly Ann is pole vault and the 4x400m relay, Nicky in high jump, Rebeccain the discus throw, and Adrianne, Jasmine and Allison in the 4×400 relay.
Silver medal winners include: Bryce in the 100m hurdles, 4x100m and 4x400m, Chris in the 800m, 1200m and 4x400m, Austin in pole vault, Nicole in pole vault, Nicky in the 80m hurdles, long jump and the 4x100m, Sarah and Chanelle in the 4x100m and 4x400m,Allison, Daniel, Thomas Kellner and Thomas Wood in the 4x100m and John, Sean,Melissa and Rebecca in the 4x400m.
Bronze medal winners include: Alex Bymoen in the shot put and high jump, John in the 800m, Thomas Kellner in pole vault and the 4x400m, Adrianne in the 800m and 4x100m,Kelly Ann in the high jump and 4x100m, Nicole in the shot put, Nicky In the 100m,Melissa in the 2000m and 4x100m, Daniel, Drew and Thomas Wood in the 4x400m, andJasmine in the 4x100m.
Quite an impressive medal haul! Well done team!
· There were some very impressive personal best (PB) performances this weekend.
Rhykel led the team, achieving personal best performances in all of his events. Rhykel took 1.92s off his PB in the 100m, 3.4s off his PB in the 200m and added another 4.42m to his PB in the javelin.
Daniel achieved PBs in three of his events. In the 300m, Daniel improved his time by just shy of a second. In the discus, Daniel added another 32cm to his PB, while in the javelinDaniel added an impressive 5.06m to his PB with a throw of 30.03m.
John took an impressive 10.55s off his PB in the 800m, finishing in 2:14.75s to capture the bronze medal. John also ran a 4.19s PB of 3:40.64s in the 1200m to finish just out of the medals in 4th place.
Jasmine took just shy of a second off the 200m PB that she established at the second New Balance meet just a couple of weeks ago.
Bryce took 1.92s off his 100m hurdles PB that he established at the first New Balance meet to finish in 15.25s and capture the silver medal.
Drew decided on the spur of the moment to enter the 800m and, despite the heat, ran an impressive race, finishing in 2:27.38s, a PB of 13.99s.
Thomas Wood took 1.77s off his PB in the 100m hurdles.
Austin added another 20cm to his PB in the long jump and 1.94m to his PB in the javelin.
· Of the 23 women in the midget long jump competition, four of the eight athletes who qualified for the final were from CALTAF. Congratulations to Kelly Ann, Nicky, Rebecca and Allison.
· Despite being a first-year midget and having to compete up against older athletes, Allisonqualified for both the 100m and 200m finals despite large fields of 25 and 28 athletes respectively.
· Although our pole vaulters only began training in the event four weeks ago, Bryce, Austin,Thomas Kellner, Kelly Ann and Nicole all managed to clear the bar, and four will represent Alberta in the event at the upcoming Championships. Bryce won the men’s competition, clearing 2.30m, while Kelly Ann won the women’s competition, clearing 2.00m.
· In the midget men’s 800m, CALTAF captured two of the three medals, with Chris taking the silver medal and John winning the bronze medal. In the 1200m, Chris again finished 2nd, whileJohn was 4th.
· Of the 25 athletes in the midget women’s 100m, three of the eight athletes who qualified for the final were from CALTAF – Nicky, Sarah and first-year midget Allison.
· In her very first discus competition, Rebecca won the gold medal with a throw of 19.95m. As a result, I have taken the liberty of adding you to the discus competition at the CALTAF Classic,Rebecca.
· Bryce won the 200m hurdles in a personal best time of 27.18s. He is now ranked 1st in the province in this event.
· I think that this was the first meet where the athletes went to bed before the curfew. On Saturday, I established what I thought was an early lights-out time of 9:30pm. The athletes were so exhausted from their efforts at the track all day and so anxious to do well on Sunday, that most were asleep by 9:00pm. I was most impressed with how disciplined the athletes were all weekend. They warmed-up well, ate sensibly, cooled down, and went to bed early. It was good to see them rewarded with such outstanding results.
· One advantage of having a large contingent of athletes is that it is possible to put together multiple relay teams. Our 4x100m and 4x400m teams were very successful, winning 1 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals.
· Despite falling midway through the 200m hurdles race, Kelly Ann picked herself up, finished the race and still managed to place 7th of 13 athletes.
· Nicky won 5 medals, four of them in individual events: gold in the high jump with a PB jump of 1.68m, silver in the 80m hurdles with a time of 12.28s, silver in the long jump with a jump of 5.00m, and bronze in the 100m with a time of 13.27s. Bryce also won 5 medals, 3 of them in individual events: gold in the pole vault, silver in the 100m hurdles in a PB time of 15.25s and gold in the 200m hurdles in a PB time of 27.18s.
· I am very pleased that several CALTAF first-year midgets – Melissa, Jasmine, Allison,Rebecca and Austin – were selected to the team. The coaches are counting on the fifteen 1995 athletes who were named to the team to be the leaders of Team Alberta next year. It is to their credit that each of these athletes, despite being first year midgets, won at least one provincial medal.
· Given the heat, our distance racers faced some tough conditions on the weekend. Nevertheless, they were very successful, with Chris finishing 2nd in both the 800m and 1200m,John coming 3rd in the 800m and 4th in the 1200m, Sean placing 8th in both the 800m and 1200m, Adrianne finishing 3rd in the 800m and 4th in the 1200m, and Melissa finishing 3rd in the 2000m.
The athletes, coaches and I would like to sincerely thank our chaperones, Jaylyne Galey and Jean Leong, who worked tirelessly on behalf of the athletes and coaches all weekend. It was a deathly hot and sunny weekend, and Jaylyne and Jean ensured that the athletes stayed well hydrated by delivering water to them at the field event sites. They also kept the athletes well coated in sunscreen, ensured they stayed in the shade of the tents as much as possible and generally took good care of them. I am not certain how they accomplished it in the heat, but they kept our water bottles full of ice all weekend. They supervised the setting up and taking down of the tents while I attended Team Alberta meetings, and ensured the safety of the athletes in the swimming pool in the evening while I worked on the team selection. They made certain that the athletes were up in good time in the morning and saw them safely to their rooms in the evening. Their days were long and very busy. We owe them both a huge debt of thanks. I would also like to thank Jacqueline Clements who made Adam and me the envy of the other Team Alberta coaches by delivering iced coffees to us in the heat of the day. Samantha Charlesworthkindly provided several cases of bottled water to us, so that we could ensure that the athletes had enough to drink. Thank you all so much. Your contributions helped to ensure the success of the CALTAF athletes and we are most grateful.
Our next meet is New Balance Meet #3 this Sunday, 7th June, from 12 noon to 3:00pm at Glenmore. I will forward the schedule to you as soon as it is posted. I have attached the entry sheet in case you have forgotten which events you signed up for. Please arrive one hour before your first event. Don’t forget your singlet, spikes and water bottle.
I will issue an email with the Calgary Hershey results as soon as they are posted. It sounds like the CALTAF peewees and bantams were very successful.
See you tomorrow at Foothills for pole vault, high jump and hurdles.
Robin
