Two Island athletes who recorded their breakthrough first major Games medals last year in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games will try to do it this summer on home soil at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.
Middle-distance star Cam Levins from Black Creek and high-jumper Michael Mason from Nanoose Bay, both bronze medallists in Glasgow, have been named to the Canadian track and field team consisting of 46 men and 43 women announced Sunday for the Toronto Games.
There鈥檚 a bit of a buzz suddenly surrounding the Canadian team thanks to Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont., who caused a sensation this month by winning the U.S. collegiate titles for the USC Trojans in both the 100 and 200 metres at the NCAA championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Also named to the Canadian team is Katelynn Ramage of Nanaimo in the women鈥檚 20K race walk.
Levins, who made the finals in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, recently destroyed the Canadian record for the 10,000 metres by a whopping 16 seconds with a 27:07.51 clocking. The Islander is among eight Pan Am Games-bound athletes named to the team after setting Canadian records this year. The others are Natasha Wodak of Vancouver in the women鈥檚 10,000 metres, Elizabeth Gleadle of Surrey in the women鈥檚 javelin, Christabel Nettey of Surrey in the women鈥檚 long jump, Shawnacy Barber of Toronto in the men鈥檚 high jump, Rachel Seaman of Peterborough, Ont., in the women鈥檚 20K race walk and Brianne Theisen-Eaton of Humboldt, Sask., in the heptathlon.
鈥淢y training this season has been going especially well, and setting the Canadian record recently in the 10,000 metres has only boosted my confidence,鈥� said Levins, by email.
鈥淚鈥檓 grateful for the opportunity to represent my country on Canadian soil, and I鈥檓 looking to be on the podium at the Pan Am Games,鈥� added the graduate of G.P. Vanier Secondary in Courtenay and the Comox Valley Cougars Track Club.
Levins, who graduated from Southern Utah as the 5,000- and 10,000-metre NCAA champion, has trained at the Nike Oregon Track Project since 2013 under Alberto Salazar. The BBC Panorama show recently made claims about Salazar giving testosterone to his star American athlete Galen Rupp when he was 16.
Asked about the situation, Levins told the sa国际传媒 by email: 鈥淚 would rather not talk about it at this time.鈥�
But Levins gave a track-side interview to Flotrack earlier this month. Flotrack is a website specializing in track and field. In the Flotrack video, Levins comments that Rupp and Salazar have 鈥渂een very trustworthy . . . there鈥檚 nothing that I鈥檝e ever seen that I would attribute to any of these allegations . . . I鈥檝e never been pushed into any sort of grey area.鈥�
