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From Usain Bolt鈥檚 heir-apparent, Andre De Grasse, to a new track coming to Centennial Stadium, these are heady days for track and field in sa国际传媒 on several fronts.
The Canadian championships, and qualifying trials for the 2017 IAAF world championships in London from Aug. 5 to 13, are taking place this weekend in Ottawa.
They follow sa国际传媒鈥檚 breakthrough six medals in track and field at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games.
鈥淲e are not going to world events just to participate anymore, we are going there to win,鈥� said two-time Olympic marathoner Bruce Deacon of Victoria.
Deacon, now a Prairie Inn Harriers coach, is at the national championships in Ottawa guiding several Island runners.
鈥淭here is an expectation of excellence now, and that builds on itself,鈥� said Deacon, who ran in the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics, and won silver at the 2003 Pan Am Games.
Deacon has to look no further than his own athletes to prove his point. He coached Liam Stanley of Victoria to a silver medal last summer in the 2016 Rio Paralympics. Stanley won gold in the para-ambulatory 800 metres and silver in the 1,500 metres at the national championships this weekend in Ottawa, and is headed to the world para championships in London. Michael Barber of Oak Bay High won silver in the para-ambulatory 800 metres.
Another Deacon athlete, Tyler Dozzi out of Oak Bay High, won the silver medal in the junior men鈥檚 5,000 metres at the nationals in Ottawa.
鈥淸Dozzi] has a bright future. He wants it. He has a hunger for it,鈥� Deacon said. 鈥淗e will be on the national senior team in a few years with an eye on the world championships, Commonwealth and Pan Am Games, and Olympics.鈥�
Deacon also has two other runners racing at the national championships: Vlad Lyesin and Matthew Thibodeau are both coming out of Oak Bay High to run in U Sports with the Vikes at the University of Victoria.
鈥淎s a coach, I apply many of the things I learned as an athlete, and that gives my runners a leg up,鈥� Deacon said.
鈥淭hey sense I believe in them. That is important because this is a sport where success does not come overnight. You have to be patient and believe in yourself.鈥�
sa国际传媒鈥檚 new generation of track stars need places to run and train. Centennial Stadium, on the campus of the University of Victoria, has provided such a venue for numerous Olympians over the years. So, news that the Centennial Stadium track, laid for the 1994 Commonwealth Games, will finally be replaced this summer, is rippling positively through the Canadian track community.
鈥淚t鈥檚 long overdue,鈥� Deacon said.
Beside the Island and other Canadian Olympians who have raced and trained on the Centennial Stadium track, so have international legends such as John Carlos, Tommie Smith, John Walker, Linford Christie and Frankie Fredericks over the facility鈥檚 50-year history.
The coming new Centennial Stadium track is reportedly part of a sa国际传媒 150 grant. Sources say an official joint announcement by the federal government and UVic is imminent. The project is expected to be completed by the end of August.
It comes after the opening of the $1.2-million training track last year at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence on the Camosun College Interurban campus.
PISE鈥檚 track, which has public access, is home to the Athletics sa国际传媒 Western Hub national training centre and is considered an important facility in the quest to produce more Canadian medallists at international events, beginning next month in London.
Funding came from an array of public and private sources, including $250,000 from the provincial government and $154,000 from the federal sa国际传媒 150 Community Infrastructure Program.
