Congratulations to the five JD athletes – Hanna, Kamila, Harrison, Noah andMehrdad – who competed this past weekend at the Canadian Midget & Youth Championships in Langley, BC. All together, they accounted for five medals, four provincial records and one of the best JD performances at nationals in quite some time.
Special congratulations to Kamila, who is the 2013 Canadian champion in the midget girls 2000m! She shattered the Alberta record (for 14 year old girls and 15 year old girls) by seven seconds and established a new personal best of6:23.45. She did it the hard way, leading for the last four laps of the race and fighting off a spirited challenge by 1200m champion Jennie Baragar-Petrash with a 70 second final lap.
Speaking of the 1200m, Kamila also won the bronze medal in that event and broke the 14 & under provincial record with an outstanding time of 3:37.30. She battled hard in a sprint to the finish after getting stuck at the back of the pack at the beginning of the race. Congratulations Kamila. Your coaches could not be more proud of you!
(photo by Blair Bateson)
(photo by Blair Bateson)
Mehrdad also delivered an outstanding first-time performance at nationals. He is bringing home three medals, a silver in the 4x100m as a member of Team Alberta, a bronze in the medley relay, also with Team Alberta, and a bronze in the 100m hurdles, where he set a new provincial record of 14.39 seconds for 14 year old boys. Although it took him a while to get his medal, as the officials accidentally gave his bronze to someone else, it was well earned. Way to go Mehrdad!
(photo by Blair Bateson)
(photo by Blair Bateson)
The PB of the meet for our group probably has to go to Hanna in the midget girls hammer throw. She exceeded her previous best by nearly five metres on her first throw of the competition, reaching 40.66m, good for a sixth place finish. She also broke the provincial record for girls 14 & under, which was particularly significant because before yesterday, every single women’s hammer throw record in Alberta was held by 2012 Olympian Heather Steacy. Now it is Heather and Hanna. Awesome!
(photo by Blair Bateson)
Kamila, Mehrdad and Hanna are all first-year midgets, and they all stepped up huge on the big stage against older competition. I can’t wait to see what they can do next year as second year midgets!
The last two JD representatives at nationals, Noah and Harrison, also deserve big praise.Noah, despite only joining CALTAF in March, had a strong outdoor season and ran very well in his first nationals, finishing with a 3 second personal best in the midget boys 1500m steeplechase. Harrison showed great determination and grit after hitting the first hurdle in his first race and tweaking his hip. Despite being less than 100%, there was no stopping him from running his other three hurdle races to the best of his ability. Both Noah and Harrison will be moving to one of CALTAF’s high school groups in the fall, so let me say on behalf of the JD coaches, both of you have been great members of the group, and you will be missed. Congratulations Noah and Harrison!
(photo by Blair Bateson)
(photo by Blair Bateson)
And with that, the season is in the books. It was a great group to be a part of, and I am looking forward to seeing everyone for base training/cross country in September. Enjoy the rest of the summer!
Coach Blair
