Ocean Athletics Track and Field Club played host to the 2017 BC Athletics Track and Field Championships Jamboree July 14-16th, 2017, at Percy Perry Stadium. Thunderbirds Track and Field club had an outpour of fantastic performances over the weekend, which are summarized by training groups below. We would like to extend a sincere thank you to Ocean Athletics and BC Athletics for hosting such a well run meet, and for providing our athletes with the opportunity to experience a high-caliber competition environment. These meets would not be possible without the countless hours of preparation and volunteer work that go on behind the scenes to ensure things run smoothly for all athletes, coaches, and parents! Thank you!

Performance of the Meet, Thunderbirds Track and Field Club

With THREE Provincial gold medals hanging around her neck, two new personal bests, and an automatic bid to the Legion National Championships, representing Team BC, Thunderbirds’ weekend performance highlight goes without question to midget athlete, Michelle Dadson. On Friday, July 14th, Dadson won the midget girl’s hammer throw in a new personal best of 45.24m. The following day, she added an additional gold medal in the shot put (13.19m), as well as a gold medal in the discus with a new lifetime best of 34.49m. Dadson will represent Team BC at Legion National Championships held in Brandon, Manitoba from August 11-13. Congratulations Michelle, and coach Don! Teammate, Lucas Ilicic also reached the podium, throwing a personal best of 43.27m in the discus, earning silver in the men's youth division.

On the endurance side, coach Stan Jang and Sean Dawson had a number of impressive results to close out a fantastic outdoor season:

Manon Plouvier broke the 5 minute curse over the 1500m, running a new personal best time of 4:57.41 in the girl’s 16/17 year old age category and placing 7th behind teammate Bridget Baziw, 6th in 4:57.03
Dylan Uhrich capped off a great season with two personal bests in the men’s 14-15 year old 1500m steeplechase (bronze, 4:37.51) and silver in the 2000m (PB, 6:08.20). Jumping on the PB band-wagon, Uhrich’s teammates Christian Peterson, and Riordan Miya placed 6th and 7th in the steeplechase, and 4th/8th over the 2000m, respectively.
Quinton Braziller capped off a stellar season with an 11 second personal best in the men’s 16/17 1500m (4:21.78) as well as a lifetime best in the 800m (2:04.22).
After a big breakthrough performance last month, Ian Robinson ran yet another personal best over 800m in 2:05.04, with teammate Calum MacKenzie crossing in a PB of 2:05.70. Also in the 16/17 men’s 800, Benjamin Ross knocked 9 seconds off his 800m personal best over the last month, running 2:06.17 at the Jamboree.

The endurance group will now take a much deserved break over the next two weeks, and resume base training in August with the first official Cross Country practice beginning September 5th, 2017.

Coach Andrew Cooke’s Power/Speed athletes dominated the podium:

Midget, Logan Fung earned silver in the women’s 200m tying her previous personal best time of 12.97, and won bronze in the 300mH with a massive personal best of over 1.5 seconds, running 46.14.
Midget, Terence Cheung placed 4th in the men’s 100mH in a personal best of 14.99 seconds, as well as 4th in the 300mH with a personal best of 42.43 seconds.
Youth athlete Sam Prevost ran a personal best time of 22.23 over 200m.

Highlights from our Senior Power/Speed Athletes, coached by Laurier Primeau include:

Stephen Abosi, silver in the 100m with a new personal best time of 10.62, and gold in the 200m with a new PB of 21.99!
Kenneth Schultze, winner of the Senior Men’s decathlon.
Tanya Motsi, silver in women’s 100m hurdles.
Kyle Nielsen, winner of the men’s javelin.
Jackson Cheung, gold in the 110 hurdles.
Bogdan Pavel, silver in the 110 hurdles.

Coach Larry Blaschuck’s jump athlete highlights:

Jesse Taylor, 8th place in midget girls high jump, 1m45’.
Gia Groenewegen, 10th place in midget girls High Jump, 1m45’.
Andrea Hui, 4th place in the youth women’s High Jump, 1m50; 8th place in long jump, 4.45m.
Luka Poljak, silver in the youth men’s high jump, 1m75’; 5th place in long jump, 5.80m.

A huge congratulations as well to Sarah Cathcart, who won the Junior Women’s Heptathlon with 3494 points, representing the Vancouver Thunderbirds!

A complete list of results can be found here.

Congratulations to all athletes on a fantastic weekend, and best of luck to our Junior Development athletes competing at their provincial championships this coming weekend, as well as all Midget/Junior athletes who have qualified for Legion Nationals! Go Thunderbirds!

Triple Gold for Dadson at BC Provincial Championships Jamboree