Oumar SalifouThe 2015 edition of the Canadian Track and Field championships took place in Edmonton this weekend, with thousands of athletes from across Canada taking part in the event.
The event serves as selection trials for the upcoming world championships held in China, and also serves as the last real tune up for athletes also competing in the Pan Am games in Toronto, which start on July 10.
Edmonton has been a popular destination for track and field events in Canada in the past, as the city hosted the 1978 Commonwealth Games and the 2001 IAAF Track and Field championships. Upcoming events this summer include the Pan-American Junior Athletics championships, which take place July 31 – Aug. 2, and the Edmonton International Track Classic, which takes place July 12, and is part of a larger series of events called the National Track League.
Antoine Boussombo, a Gabonese sprinter and current coach at Capital City Track Club, said that hosting the events in Edmonton gives the hometown athletes an advantage.
“It’s a very good thing for (the athletes), they don’t need to travel, and they don’t need to be tired,” Boussombo said.
This year’s event featured many stars from around the world of Canadian Track and Field, including Black Creek British Columbia native Cameron Levins. Levins, who specializes in the 5000 and 10,000-metre events, attended Southern Utah University, and won the 2012 men’s Bowerman award for top collegiate NCAA athlete, the first Canadian to ever do so.
Levins also won Bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and competed in the 2012 London Olympics, finishing 11th in the 10,000 meter, and 14th in the 5000 meter events. Levins is no stranger to success, and showed it this weekend, winning the 5000-metre race by one and a half seconds.
The event also featured the man who many people are calling the future of Canadian Track and Field, Scarborough native Andre De Grasse. At the young age of 20, De Grasse already holds the Canadian record for the 200-meter event, and ran a wind assisted 9.75 to win the 2015 NCAA 100 metre title. Like Levins, De Grasse was victorious this weekend, winning the 100 meter event in a time of 9.95 seconds, the only time in the final under 10 seconds. De Grasse now looks to the Pan Am games for his next competition.
Despite these two success stories bringing more exposure to the sport of Track and Field in Canada, Boussombo still believes there is work to be done promoting the sport.
“We still need to promote track, it’s a very good event,” Boussombo said. “We should really promote it so it becomes more of a national sport, beside hockey and other sports.”
The summer of track is just getting started, look for Levins, De Grasse, and many other young Canadians at the Pan Am Games in Toronto, which start on July 10.
With files from Oumar Salifou.
