It was finally six times that New Brunswick managed to climb onto the podium this weekend at the Canadian Track and Field Championships held at the Claude-Robillard Sports Complex in Montreal. The event also (and above all) had the mandate to find the majority of the men and women who will represent the country at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.
It is important to emphasize the term “major part” since other names could be added to those who managed to reach the Olympic standard during the Nationals.
110m hurdles specialist Craig Thorne is one of them. So the spectacular Quispamsis sprinter’s victory doesn’t necessarily guarantee him a pass to Paris. The standard sought is 13.27s.
“I understand that I will know on Wednesday whether I am going or not,” reveals the 23-year-old athlete. “But in the meantime, I feel incredibly good. The conditions were far from perfect and the times recorded in the final (13.65) and in the preliminary round (13.89) are not what I anticipated. That said, the atmosphere of the crowd was worth it. It was an incredible experience.”
Thorne defeated Ontario’s David Adeleye (13.94) and Tamarri Lindo (14.18) in the final.
It was to Acadian Christel Robichaud, from the Aetos club, that we owe New Brunswick’s other gold medal in Montreal.
Robichaud won the wheelchair discus throw with a throw of 16.80m. She finished ahead of Tiffany Gaudette of Ontario and New Brunswick and Sarah Mickey of Alberta.
Robichaud also won silver in the shot put (6m41) and bronze in the javelin throw (11m68).
“I have a medal of each colour,” exclaimed the Acadian from Moncton. “It’s not bad for this time of my season. The Nationals are earlier this year because of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
“It was particularly cold during the javelin. It took me a while to get into the swing of things. But otherwise the weather was pretty good,” she said.
Christel Robichaud has the rare gift of being able to throw with both arms in the shot put, javelin and discus events. – Courtesy: Fran Harris
Samuel Bourque – Archives
Shot putter Samuel Bourque added another feat to his already long list by winning bronze with a throw of 17m05. The strongman from Notre-Dame-de-Kent improved his provincial record of 16m39. Only Ontario’s Mark Bujnowski (19m15) and Quebec’s Youssef Koudssi (18m79) have thrown further than the 23-year-old Acadian.
New Brunswick’s other medal went to wheelchair sprinter Dante Cormier of Riverview, who won the 200m in 31.67 seconds. The young Aetos athlete also finished fifth in both the 100m and 400m races.
Among the province’s great performances, that of Saint-Jean decathlete Ryan Evans deserves to be highlighted.
If Evans was unable to beat Chris Robertson’s provincial record (7,040 points), it wasn’t for lack of trying. Evans collected no less than 6,904 points in Montreal and that’s a personal best. His previous record was 6,830 points.
Evans particularly distinguished himself in the shot put and the 1500m with a second place, as well as in the 110m hurdles and the 400m with a third position. Also of note is his fourth place in the pole vault and the discus throw.
Para pitcher Rémi Ouellette, from the Aetos club, is another who has no reason to be ashamed of his weekend.
Ouellette finished twice just off the podium (4th place) in the shot put and discus. The athlete from Haute-Aboujagane even set a Canadian record in the F41 class in the shot put with a throw of 8m44. He also set a personal best in the discus with a throw of 22m02.
Long distance runner Brett King and hurdler Bridget Brennan, both from the Saint John club, also shone with fifth place in their respective events.
King, who competes in the under-20 category, completed the 3000m final with a time of 8min37.24sec, less than seven seconds off the podium. King also did well in the 5000m with a sixth place finish (15min04.84sec), just under four seconds off the top five.
Brennan also came very close to a podium finish with her time of 1min00s53 in the senior 400m hurdles. Just under three seconds off her time and she would have had a medal around her neck.
Four other top-10s were recorded by our athletes at the Nationals.
First, let’s note the seventh place of Shelby MacIsaac, of Saint-Jean, in the senior 400m hurdles, thanks to a time of 1min01s51. Lexie Shannon finished in the same place in the senior triple jump with a leap of 12m24, just 10 centimeters from a top-5 finish.
Timothy Brennan, in the senior 400m hurdles, finished eighth with a time of 55.21 seconds, less than two seconds outside the top five. Brennan had been even faster in the semi-final with a time of 54.25 seconds.
Sam Richter, also from Saint-Jean, took 10th place in the 3000 M20 with a time of 8min43s64.
The young prodigy Erin Vringer should normally have found herself in this list of achievements, but things went less well than expected in the final of the senior 1500m, as evidenced by her time of 4min15s80 (12th place). The Saint-Jeannoise had nevertheless managed a 4min15s80 in the qualifying round, a time that would have given her 4th place for the final.
We also cannot ignore the performances of Jackson Banks, from the Saint-Jean club, and Nathan Rioux, from the Aetos club, in the 100m in the under-20 age group. Even though Banks (10.89) and Rioux (10.95) managed to break the 11-second barrier, it was not even enough to take part in the final. That’s how fast the Canadians are in the sprints.
