By Matt Sookram
It’s North Bay’s athletes against the rest at the NOSSA track and field championships according to Dave Wilkinson, the convenor of this year’s event at St. Joseph Scollard Hall. The soon to be retired teacher of 31 years says “North Bay’s track and field community works really well together – they put on a top quality meet.”
The best athletes in shot put, javelin, pole vault, sprints and dashes of various lengths and more are in town over two days (Wednesday and Thursday) vying for a chance to compete among the best in the province at the OFSAA championships, June 2nd – 4th in Windsor.
Wilkinson says once it gets to this point of the season every coach and athlete in North Bay seem to be puling for one another, “We all enjoy the success of North Bay athletes.”
And it’s been that way for as long as he can remember, but it’s even more important now than ever, “We’ve always tried to help other schools by sharing coaches and sharing facilities. Numbers are going down and it’s hard to get coaches that are specifically trained in specific events, so community coaches are a key to what is going on. I give them a lot of credit – every coach from every school deserves to be recognized.”
Can you name the last Canadian Olympic medalist Javelin thrower? Or how about the top ranked Canadian in the sport of long jump without the aid of Google?
These are sports that don’t get a lot of recognition, but are just as impressive to watch live and when these athletes put their heart and soul into being the best it is very rewarding and incredibly entertaining to watch says Wilkinson. He adds, ‘Track is so diverse and there is so much going on at these events and you don’t want to miss anything, but you can’t watch everything.”
If there isn’t an audience, if there isn’t the glamour does that lead to a reason for why the numbers are down?
“I don’t think that’s it,” says Wilkinson. “I think athletes are down overall because enrolment is down. There’s also more choices now, we offer NDA baseball and ultimate Frisbee is becoming popular so we’re fighting an uphill battle.”
The battle only gets harder for those who have no interest in stepping onto a field of any sorts says Wilkinson, “We need to get kids excited about competing again. I get it’s easier not to be out here; why run 100 meters when you can control someone to do it on your x-box? There’s just not as much excitement around it, but my hope is with the new facilities some of that excitement will come back.”
The two-year-old Cundari Field at St. Joseph Scollard Hall was also the sight of some excitement last week when the NDA championships took place as Algonquin Barons Grade 9 athlete Grace Michauville broke three records en route to winning the Fergie Dowdall Award as the top athlete of the NDA track and field championship.
Wilkinson says that was as good of a performance as he has seen in his 31 years, “she looks promising.”
North Bay could use some promising athletes when competing against the NOSSA and eventually OFSAA athletes, because the competition level takes a big leap says Wilkinson, “In North Bay you’re a big fish in a little pond, that pond gets a little bigger when NOSSA starts, and by the time OFSAA comes around you’re the same size fish, only now you’re in an ocean.”
Wilkinson says they are cheering on those North Bay fish over the two days and after day one on Wednesday here were some of the top finishes for North Bay’s athletes;
In the Women’s open 1500m Steeplechase Erin Hansel from West Ferris set a new record of 5L16.84 – the previous record was 5:21.38.
Chippewa’s Olivia Lyle won the Midget Girls 1500m with a time of 5:21.18
Algonquin’s Catherine Heroux came in second in the same race with a time of 5:25.22
Algonquin’s Megan Cruickshank finished 1st in the Senior Girls 1500m with a time of 5:14.12, that was followed closely by Elaine D’Agostino from Scollard Hall with a time of 5:18.39.
Michauville finished 2nd in Midget Girls shot put throwing 10.82m, just centimeters shy of her record breaking NDA throw of 10.93m.
Tim Hatton of Northern won the Senior boys Javelin Throw with a distance of 51.11m.
On Thursday’s second day competition gets started early at 9am with the track events at Scollard’s Cundari field and the fields events at both Scollard and Chippewa.
