The Canada Summer Games are a big deal. Bigger than many think, including some of the athletes that make the team. It's hosted every 4 year, like the Olympics, and it's televised on TSN! If any of you were on social media, you'll see a lot of people even got selfie's with Prime Minister Trudeau! This year's edition was in Winnipeg, MB and track and field ran from July 31-Aug. 4th. We had 5 athletes make Team Ontario this year, Josh Mather in javelin, Mackenzie Josie in discus, Megan Dunn in heptathlon, Locky Butcher in decathlon and 110mH, and Ramzi Abdulahi in 400m.
Ramzi grabs a selfie with Team O
Stories behind the results
Injuries plagued Locky Butcher and Ramzi Abdulahi. Locky had a crash in hurdle practice the day before leaving for the games. With a bruised heel, causing him to limp, he was relegated to rest until competition in hopes it would heal enough before competing. It did, and Locky walked away with a 5th place finish in the 110mH, with a time of 14.96s and 8th in the decathlon, with a score of 5423pts. Ramzi strained his adductor right before nationals, a month before the games. He had to drop out of the nationals, because of it and for the whole month leading up to CSG, not much work was done. He walks away from his first Canada Summer Games experience with a silver medal in the 400m in a new lifetime best of 47.60s. Sometimes, talent just finds a way to get the job done.
Josh Mather took bronze in javelin.
High school kids, Megan Dunn and Josh Mather step up in a big way, amongst much older competitors. The Canada Summer Games is for U23 athletes. Not surprisingly, many athletes at the games are closer to the max age. In her 2nd heptathlon in about a month, Megan Dunn scored a new personal best 4394pts, which was good enough for 8th. She also ran on the 4x400 in the heats to help Ontario make it to the final, where they went on to take bronze. Josh threw a personal best in the qualifying rounds by breaking the 60m barrier for the first time, with a throw of 60.99m. He threw 59.96m in the final and took home bronze. These 2 have bright futures.
Megan Dunn with the other 4x400 girls
Mackenzie Josie was golden in discus! For the fist time in his life, Mackenzie broke the 50m barrier, with a new personal best of 50.38m to take home the gold medal.
Mackenzie was golden in discus!