At the Hamilton Season Opener on Sunday night, a few hours after our own Bob Vigars Classic had ended, Marcel Scheele toed the line for the 3000m steeple chase. 9min and 2sec later, Scheele qualified for the 2018 World Junior Championships! But, there's more to the story...
Marcel Scheele is currently ranked #1 in Canada in the Junior Men's 3000mSC.
Marcel's pb going into the race was 9:22..78 and was ranked 5th in the country last year. His official time on Sunday was 9:02.21 and is currently ranked #1 in Canada. With 2 laps to go, one of his spikes came undone and fell off his foot. So, for the last 2 laps, he ran with 1 shoe! Nothing was going to stop him on that night. To book his ticket, Marcel needs to stay top 2 in the country. The deadline to qualify is June 17th.
Hall and Burke Seeking Standards
Sprinter hurdler, Kaylyn Hall, is knocking on the door of the World Junior Championships. She has a time of 14.18s over the 100mH. Standard is 14.10s and she is currently ranked 4th in the country. We'll continue tracking her progress, as the deadline approaches. Kaylyn's challenge is that high school hurdle specs do not match IAAF standards, so she is forced to race additional meets outside of the high school system.
Another top high schooler in our club, Evan Burke, is looking to qualify for the Jamaican Invitational. This meet was created in response to the cancellation of the NACAC-U18 Championships. Evan has won TVRAA and WOSSA in the 15oom, with a current best time of 3:55.73. This time currently ranks him #3 in the country. He has the standard, but must be top 2 and he's less than 1 second away. The 1500m at OFSAA West goes off on Friday night.
Olympians Phylicia George and Khamica Bingham competed in the 100 and 200 at this year's Bob Vigars Classic. Photo cred: Howard Adams - Life 2 Photography
Varsity and Post-Collegiate Stories...
Jack Sheffar recently spent 3 weeks training at altitude in Flagstaff, AZ. With his body now packed with more red blood cells, we'll wait to see the positive effects on the track this outdoor season.
Chris Balestrini won the AO 10K Track Championships a week ago, right here in London. He is currently ranked #5 in Canada.
Kevin Blackney took 2nd at the National 10K Road Race Championships in Ottawa this past weekend. He was also 2nd at the AO 10K Track Championships that were in London a week ago.
Many other athletes have just opened their seasons and we'll report on them, as they get closer to major meets, like AO's and Nationals.
Keep up the great work everyone. Our club is rolling along quite nicely right now.