Eugene, Oregon, is known as Track Town, USA, and it’s where the best runners, jumpers, hurdlers and throwers want to be July 15-24 at the 2022 world track and field championships at historic Hayward Field.
The road to Eugene, and the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, ran through Centennial Stadium on a pleasant Thursday evening as athletes chased qualifying standards in the Victoria Track Classic. There was a sense of urgency as the window is closing fast for the more than 160 athletes from 13 nations who were on hand in front of an appreciative gallery. Victoria was one of the last meets in which to reach qualifying standards before the last-chance Canadian trials this month at McLeod Stadium in Langley, and for Americans, the U.S. trials in Eugene.
Three-time Olympian Kara Winger battled back from a year-long ankle injury to carry the flag for the U.S. last summer in the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. “I cry every time I think about that honour,” she said.
Winger won the women’s javelin Thursday with a toss of 61.08 metres. The Pan Am Games multi-medallist, with gold at Toronto in 2015 and silver at Lima in 2019, was well off her U.S. record 66.67 but surpassed the meet record of 60.88, held by Canadian record-holder and three-time Olympian Liz Gleadle, and expressed satisfaction with the performance.
“I am so proud of this 36-year-old body which made six hard throws tonight, two days after making six hard throws [reaching 63.08 metres at the Harry Jerome Classic in Burnaby on Tuesday],” said the Seattle native, who threw in the NCAA for the Purdue Boilermakers, and plans to retire after the worlds in Eugene.
“It’s fun still. It was a great atmosphere on a gorgeous evening. I’m half-Canadian. My dad grew up in Vancouver, I have family in Duncan, and to top it off my husband [Russ Winger] competed in the 2011 Victoria Track Classic.”
Another highlight of the field events was the battle between U.S. long-jumpers Tristan James, Pac-12 silver- and bronze-medallist with the University of Oregon Ducks, and 2019 NCAA-champion Rayvon Grey out of LSU, who in 2016 eclipsed legendary 1968 Olympic-champion Bob Beamon’s New York state long-jump record that had stood for 51 years. Grey won it in Victoria with a meet-record leap of 7.84 metres, shunting James to second place at 7.69 metres and Lauchlan Irish of Athletics Victoria to third place at 6.49.
“I loved it,” said Grey, of his first time in sa国际传媒.
“My jumping was clean and consistent tonight. Next it’s on to Eugene [U.S. world championship trials] where I will try to make the team.”
On the track, Canadian Jean-Simon Desgagnés from the Université de Laval was looking to make world championships standard the men’s 3,000-metre steeplechase after missing it by 2/10ths of a second last weekend at the New York Grand Prix. He won Thursday in 8:27.94 but was off the worlds qualifying mark of 8:22.00. NCAA Pac-12 and Ireland national champion Brian Fay of Dublin, out of the University of Washington Huskies, was second in 8:32.65.
“Running world standard is never easy. But it’s part of the game,” said Desgagnés, who said he has now set his sights on the Canadian trials in Langley.
The Gary Reed Men’s 800 Metres is named in honour of the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2022 inductee and world championship silver medallist and Olympic fourth-place finisher. It was won in 1:46.14 by Canadian record-holder and two-time Rio and Tokyo Olympian Brandon McBride of Windsor, Ont., just off the world championship qualifying standard of 1:45.20.
“The time was not quite there today but the time will come. I just want to improve daily,” said McBride, two-time NCAA champion at Mississippi State.
“It was nice to compete in front of [this] crowd.”
Sweden 1,500-metre champion and 2019 world championship semifinalist Yolanda Ngarambe, out of NCAA University of Vermont, said she found the ferry ride over “calming.” She certainly was calm and collected in winning the women’s 800 metres in 2:02.86. Anna Gibson was second in 2:03.58 and Mariela Liusa Real, the Mexican record holder and finalist in the 2019 Lima Pan Am Games, third in 2:03.97.
