Track and field athletes gather for the 37th annual Victoria Track Classic from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Centennial Stadium.
The year after an Olympics always represents a conundrum for athletes. Most sports offer up world championships in the follow-up year but they lack the glitter of the Games.
That, however, didn’t stop Summer McIntosh from setting three world records at Saanich Commonwealth Place this month in the Canadian swim trials for the world aquatics championships in Singapore this summer.
Now it’s the turn of the track and field athletes to gather post-Paris for the 37th annual Victoria Track Classic Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at Centennial Stadium.
“The year after the Olympics represents in many ways a changing of the guard,” said University of Victoria Vikes track head coach Hilary Stellingwerff, a two-time middle-distance Olympian for Canada at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
“This year’s Victoria Classic is a look-ahead to the kinds of athletes we will have gunning for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.”
The Victoria Classic, established in great part to the vision of legendary former UVic Vikes head coach Brent Fougner, began in 1988 highlighted by Commonwealth Games medallist Dave Campbell of Victoria beating Peter Rono of Kenya in a classic duel. Rono ran from Centennial Stadium to win Olympic gold in the 1,500 metres later that summer in Seoul.
The Victoria Classic’s 36 years since have seen a plethora of Olympians go through, including Victoria Sports Hall of Fame-inducted middle-distance legends Diane Cummins and Gary Reed, Olympic medallist Angela Chalmers of Victoria, four-time Olympic high-jumper Mike Mason of Nanaimo, and the likes of Canada’s Olympic medallist shot-putter Dylan Armstrong and Olympic champion high-jumper Derek Drouin.
There have been so many other storied moments. American javelin thrower Kara Winger only qualified for the 2022 world track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, by making standard just a few weeks earlier at Centennial Stadium in the 2022 Victoria Track Classic. Winger went on to win the world championship silver medal in Eugene and the Diamond League championship.
This year’s field is younger and more developmental and aspiring. “This is not the highest level Victoria Classic meet we have hosted. But these are really good, young talented athletes who are on the brink of making national teams,” said Stellingwerff.
There are many steps along the way, as Stellingwerff herself can attest, as she competed in the 2005 World University Games in Ismir, Turkey, 2006 Melbourne and 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and two world indoor championships before her two Olympic appearances.
“It’s hard to bridge the gap to the Olympic level and this is what this process is all about,” said Stellingwerff.
Cases-in-point are 3,000-metre steeplechaser Marisha Thompson of UVic and 800-metre runner Rachel Mortimer of University of British Columbia, who will be running today to earn qualifying points for the 2025 World University Games next month in Berlin. Numerous other competitors are also running, jumping and throwing to make the World University Games or junior national team, or to qualify for the Canadian trials July 30 to Aug. 2 in Ottawa for the 2025 world track and field championships in September in Tokyo. The Victoria Track Classic is sanctioned by World Athletics, with athletes able to gain qualifying points for various world events.
“All the fields are full [today] for all our events,” said Stellingwerff, noting the keenness of these hopefuls to gain qualifying points.
A highlight will be the men’s 800 metres, in which University of Washington Huskies NCAA all-American Cole Lindhorst, with a personal best of 1:46, will be up against former Canadian Under-20 champion Jonathan Podbielski and UVic’s Tate O’Brien.
Rio Paralympics silver medallist Liam Stanley of Victoria and Jaryd Clifford of Australia, who won three medals in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, will be contesting the men’s 3,000 metres.
Rising Islanders to watch for today, and along the road to Los Angeles, include Charli Mlotshwa in the men’s 1,500 metres, Kaila Neigum in the women’s 1,500 metres, Ella Lane in the women’s 3,000 metres, Alexander Cheung in the men’s discus, Travis Harfield in the men’s javelin, Isaac Clement in the pole vault and Levi Venables in the hurdles.
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