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Losing the Victoria and Edmonton stops in the National Track League this year, due to financial constraints, created a huge hole for Western Canadian athletes right in the middle of track and field season.
But organizers have managed to scrape together a meet tonight at Centennial Stadium, the date originally scheduled for the cancelled 29th NTL Victoria Track and Field Classic.
It will feature only the 800 and 1,500 metres, but it is welcomed by those middle-distance athletes preparing for the Canadian trials July 6-9 in Ottawa that will decide the national teams for this summer鈥檚 2017 IAAF world track and field championships in London and World University Games in Taiwan.
The meet tonight runs 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and admission is free.
The meet will be put to good use by the likes of Jess O鈥機onnell of Calgary and Cole Peterson of Victoria. The 28-year-old O鈥機onnell has represented sa国际传媒 in the 2016 Rio Olympics, 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and has reached the qualifying standard in the 5,000 metres for the 2017 worlds in London.
O鈥機onnell runs the 800 and 1,500 as speed work.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 replicate meet conditions in practice,鈥� she said, of the value of tonight鈥檚 event.
鈥淚鈥檝e raced in Victoria so many times and am looking forward to another opportunity,鈥� said O鈥機onnell, who has her masters degree in exercise physiology.
Past Victoria meets, much bigger NTL affairs, helped O鈥機onnell reach her goals.
鈥淐ompeting in the Rio Olympics was a larger-than-life experience and showed me how good the best runners are, and what I need to do to go forward,鈥� said the former NCAA West Virginia Mountaineer.
The 23-year-old Peterson ran a personal best of 3:43.63 in the men鈥檚 1,500 metres this spring at Occidental College in California to make qualifying standard for the World University Games.
O鈥機onnell must now place in the top three of the women鈥檚 5,000 metres at nationals and Peterson in the top two of the men鈥檚 1,500 to stamp their respective tickets to London and Taiwan. They, and numerous other runners, will certainly make good use of the tune-up meet at Centennial Stadium.
鈥淚t was disappointing to lose the NTL meet, but we hope it鈥檚 only a one-year absence,鈥� said Peterson. But he will still get in a run as he pursues his season goal of the 2017 World University Games. Peterson has gone across town from the University of Victoria to the Athletics sa国际传媒 Western Training Hub at PISE on the Camosun College Interurban Campus.
鈥淚t was such a seamless transition because the Western Hub and UVic programs work together a lot,鈥� he said.
The sa国际传媒 West conference track athlete of the year, and winner of two gold medals at the U Sports national championships, Peterson was named winner this season of the 2016-17 President鈥檚 Cup for the UVic athlete best combining academic and athletic achievement.
Despite using up his five years of Vikes eligibility, Peterson still spends a lot of time on campus working on his masters degree in computer science, with a specialty in machine learning. The native of Edmonton has structured a dual path in academics and athletics.
鈥淪chool still gives me a lot of flexibility for training,鈥� said Peterson, who was in Flagstaff this year with the Athletics sa国际传媒 Western Hub鈥檚 annual Arizona training camp.
