Track and Field at the Pan Am Games

The Track and Field competition was very exciting on the two evenings I attended. I was lucky to see some of Canada's top athletics competitors including past and future Olympians.

My seat wasn't ideal for the medal ceremonies, finish line or some field events but was perfect for the second turn of track events, high jump and start of victory laps.

Melissa Bishop - start of last lap

Melissa Bishop - start of victory lap

Beautiful night to sing O Canada (Melissa Bishop)

No great racing shot - waiting for results to be posted

Andre de Grasse - Pan Am Champion

Damian Warner - decathlon eventual Pan Am Champion

Happy moment...until the disqualification

Derek Drouin - Olympic bronze medallist

Gold and Silver - Derek Drouin and Mike Mason

4x400m gold for Canada
Brianne Theisen-Eaton,  Taylor Sharpe, Sarah Wells, Sage Watson 

Toronto International Track & Field Games

Heading to the Toronto International Track & Field Games at University of Toronto's Varsity Stadium on June 11? Here are some tips to make your experience even better.

Please note: these are personal tips from my past experience. I am not affiliated with the TITF Games. Things may be different this year.

Following the Games twitter account is a start to get up to date news: @TOTFGames.
The website is www.totrack.ca. It has the full list of competitors and the race schedule.

Directions:

Click here to see directions (and parking) to the stadium. The entrance is on Bloor Street.

The St. George Subway station is really convenient. Use the Bedford Street exit towards the east side of the station. You can see the stadium on your right when you exit the station.

What to bring:

• camera (SLR allowed)
• binoculars
• sharpie/paper if you want autographs (or preferred item)
• sunglasses/hat if it's sunny (sun will be setting facing the stands)
• sweater - it will be cooler when the sun sets
• your ticket!

Timing:

The event starts at 6:00pm with the Men's Shot Put and Women's Hammer. You have to exit the stadium on the south side in order to see these events. Get a wristband for re-entry.

The women's high jump is at 6:30pm on the north side of the stadium.

The first track events are the Pro-Am Relay Heats at 6:30pm. Three amateurs will run the first three legs of the relay with a professional running the anchor. So far, Olympic triathlon champion Simon Whitfield and Paralympian wheelchair tennis Joel Dembe are among the anchors. The Pro-Am Final will be held at 8:05pm.

The 200m blind, 400m, 400m hurdles and 800m will be run before 8pm.

The women's pole vault starts at 7:45pm followed by the men's high jump. Not to take attention away from the high school athletes who will be running from 8:15 to 8:45pm but with the men's high jump starting at 8:10pm - moving to the north sections of the stadium may be worth it to see Canadian record holder and Olympic bronze medallist Derek Drouin perform in the high jump.

The 100m and hurdles events will be held after 8:45pm.

Olympian Perdita Felicien and Farley Flex will be in the commentary booth this year.

Athletes to Watch:

Olympic bronze medallist Derek Drouin just broke the Canadian high jump record this past weekend. He will be competing in the high jump competition at 8:10pm

At the 2012 Olympics, Justyn Warner crossed the finish line 3rd running an amazing anchor leg in the men's relay. The team's disqualification meant they didn't get a medal but it doesn't take away from his incredible run. He won the 100m at the Toronto International Track & Field Games last year in a time of 10.15. Will he match or better it?

Sheila Reid beat her personal best by 4 seconds in the 1500m last week at the Prefontaine Classic reaching the A Standard for the distance. In Toronto, she will be running the 800m. Will she beat her personal best time of 2:04.60? Click here for the Prefontaine Classic race video and here for an informative and entertaining post race interview.

Decathlete Damian Warner had an amazing performance at the London 2012 Olympics finishing 5th while setting 6 personal bests. He will run the 110m hurdles in Toronto that he won last year.

Although I took photos last year, perhaps it's best to just watch and cheer this late in the evening as the lighting is not ideal for photography. This photo was captured with Aperture Priority setting (f/5.6) and ISO of 1600.

It is worth staying for the last event of the evening. Competing in the 100m women's hurdles are two Canadian finalists from the 2012 Olympics Phylicia George (6th) and Jessica Zelinka (7th). Jessica also finished 7th in the heptathlon in London. The 100m hurdles race is named after the late Randy Starkman who was a very much respected sports reporter for The Toronto Star. Last year, his wife and brother were present for the awards ceremony.

Canadian Olympians Competing:

Men's 100m:

Justyn Warner (2012)

Aaron Brown (2012)

Women's 100m:

Crystal Emmanuel (2012)

Blind 200m:

Jon Dunkerley (2008 & 2012 Paralympics)

Brandon King (2012 Paralympics)

Women's 400m:

Jenna Martin (2012)

Men's 800m:

Geoff Harris (2012)

Women's 800m:

Melissa Bishop (2012)

Jessica Smith (2012)
Sheila Reid (2012)

Nicole Sifuentes (2012)

Men's 1500m:

Taylor Milne (2008) [update: no longer on start list]

Nate Brannen (2008 & 2012)
Alex Genest (2012) [update: added to start list]

Men's 110m hurdles:

Segun Makinde (2012 alternate 4x100m relay)

Damian Warner (2012) 

Massimo Bertocchi (2008) 

Women's 100m hurdles:

Jessica Zelinka (2008 & 2012) 

Phylicia George (2012)

Women's 400m hurdles:

Sarah Wells (2012)

Men's Shot Put:

Justin Rodhe

Men's High Jump:

Derek Drouin (2012) bronze medallist

Mike Mason (2008 & 2012)

Women's Hammer:

Sultana Frizell (2008 & 2012)

Heather Steacy (2012)

Women's Pole Vault:

Melanie Blouin (2012)

Click here for full start list

Seat selection:

Here are some pros and cons for the various locations in the stands. Choose according to your priorities.

For example, are you wanting to get great photos of the action or of the athletes? Are you wanting to see the action at the finish line? Are you wanting to see a specific athlete? Where is that athlete at the beginning of his/her race and at the end? Do you want to see the athletes on the podium?

• Near finish line (Sections C/D)
• Advantages
• see every race finish
• start of 400m and 800m
• close to pole vault and high jump
• Disadvantages
• not great view of start line for sprints (especially in lower rows)
• many people stand at the finish of races which can make it difficult to see
• Near centre (Sections F/G) [updated: these sections now sold out]
• Advantages
• great view of podium
• good view of start and finish
• good view of jumping
• Disadvantages
• see back view of athletes at finish line
• athletes always moving fast on track (no pre/post race activity)
• Near start line (Sections L/M) [updated: these sections now sold out]
• Advantages
• great view of start line (and preparation) for 100m races and hurdle races
• great view of last exchange in relays (professional athletes run anchor leg with amateurs running first 3 legs)
• great view of athletes running towards you (rather than side view) as they come round the bend
• Disadvantages
• not great view of finish
• not great view of pole vault and high jump
• Lower rows (Row 1)
• Advantages
• closer to the action, closer to the athletes
• Disadvantages
• view may be blocked by people coming up the stairs or standing at the top of the stairs (see photo ** below)
• don't get view of entire field (side view is blocked by people)
• if you stand, you block someone's view behind you
• Higher rows
• Advantages
• last year the upper rows were quite empty so you can move around to find a better spot
• great view of entire field
• last row allows you to stand without blocking others.
• Disadvantages
• further away from the action

** People seem to linger in the stairs and at the top of the stairs that can block the view in the lower rows. The following photo shows the layout of the stairs.

Photo not mine. Photo credit.

Photo Opportunities:

The best events to get photos are the 800m and 400m running events and the field events which are held before 8pm. From 8pm to 8:45pm the pro-am relay final and high school races are held.

Here are examples of photos I captured last year from Section B top row (with D-SLR 200mm zoom). Click here to see last year's post (with extra photos and names of athletes).

This photo would be even more special from Section L or M. You get an opportunity to see the athletes get ready for the 100m and hurdle races.

Section A or B are ideal to catch a start (but to catch the finish, section C would be better).

The later it gets, the harder it is to get photos as the lighting gets tricky. It's a chance to get an artistic looking shot like this:

After the races, the athletes will congratulate each other and sometimes get interviewed or pose for photos.

Sections A-C are ideal for the pole vaulting and high jump (on the right). 

The podium is in the middle of the field so sections F & G would be best to get head-on shots. 

I moved down to the middle after the last race. This would be the view of the podium (although the presentations were over by this point). 

Last year, athletes signed autographs after the meet. I'm not sure if there was a VIP reception last year so perhaps there won't be as much time for autograph signing. You can buy a VIP ticket for $75 that includes a $50 seat plus a ticket to the VIP reception which includes athletes, drinks and snacks.

Hope you found this post helpful. Enjoy the meet!

Heartbeat Highlights

Here are some of the Canadian highlights from the past week in sports:

New Canadian High Jump Record

Olympic bronze medallist, Derek Drouin broke the Canadian record in the high jump at the Prefontaine Classic. It's a shame that Canadian broadcasters weren't covering the Diamond League meet this past weekend. Although NBC showed a few of the jumpers, they didn't show Drouin's bronze medal performance (or I missed it).

Here's the video of his record-breaking jump:



Click here for his post event interview.

Sheila Reid posted a personal best time of 4:02.96 while coming in 6th in the 1500m final and reaching the A standard. It's her first time running faster than 4:07. Click here for the race video and here for an informative and entertaining post race interview.

In the 800m National final, Melissa Bishop finished 2nd reaching the B standard. Click here for the race video and here for the post-race interview.

CanoeKayak World Cup #3

The Canadian CanoeKayak team won thirteen medals this past weekend. It was wonderful to see the coverage on Sportsnet and see (in HD) our athletes who are on the road to Rio race against some of the best in the world.

You can watch the A Finals by clicking here, then choosing the individual races (or just let the videos play back to back). Unfortunately, women's canoe and 5000m races are not televised.

Gold:

• Ben Russell and Gabriel Beauchesne-Sévigny - Men's C2 1000m (race video)
• Mark de Jonge - Men's K1 200m (race video)
• Laurence Vincent-Lapointe - Women's C1 200m
• Laurence Vincent-Lapointe and Sara-Jane Caumartin - Women's C2 500m
• Gabriel Beauchesne-Sévigny - Men's C1 5000m

Silver:

• Geneviève Beauchesne-Sévigny and KC Fraser - K2 500m (race video)
• Adam van Koeverden and Brady Reardon - K2 1000m (race video)
• Gabriel Beauchesne-Sévigny and Pierre-Luc Laliberte - Men's C2 200m (race video)
• Émilie Fournel - Women's K1 5000m

Bronze:

• Étienne Beauchesne, Marshall Hughes, Philippe Duchesneau and Sam Roworth - Men's K4 1000m
• Adam van Koeverden & Brady Reardon - Men's K2 500m
• Geneviève Beauchesne-Sévigny, KC Fraser, Una Lounder and Émilie Fournel - Women's K4 500 (race video)
• Geneviève Beauchesne-Sévigny and KC Fraser - Women's K2 200m (race video)

The Canadian K2 200m teams shook things up this past weekend.

At the World Cup #2, London 2012 team Ryan Cochrane and Hugues Fournel came in 7th in the K2-200m, one and a half seconds back from the winners from Russia. Etienne Morneau and Richard Dober Jr. were 3rd in the B Final.

This weekend, Cochrane teamed up with Morneau and Fournel teamed up with Dober Jr. Both teams made the A Final this time with Cochrane and Morneau winning their heat to go straight to the final. Fournel and Dober were second in their heat to the Russians then second to the Argentinians in the semi-final.

In the final it was the team of Fournel and Dober who would be the top Canadian team finishing 4th just over one second behind the powerful Russian team in a very close finish for 3rd with 0.2 seconds separating 3rd from 6th. Cochrane and Morneau could not duplicate their heat performance finishing 9th in the final.

Full Canadian results can be found here for Day1 and here for Day 2. The Canadian team are now coming back to Canada in preparation for Team Trials #2 being held in Welland on June 21-23.

Swimming U.S. Grand Prix

It was great to see our Canadian swimmers performing well at the U.S. Grand Prix in Santa Clara televised on Sportsnet on the weekend.

Top results included:

Gold:

• Audrey Lacroix - women's 200m butterfly
• Ryan Cochrane, Alec Page, Keegan Zanatta and Jeremy Bagshaw - men's 4x200m freestyle relay
• Katerine Savard - women's 100m butterfly

Silver:

• Alexa Komarnycky - women's 800m freestyle
• Alexa Komarnycky - women's 400m freestyle
• Hannah Riordan, Victoria Poon, Sandrine Mainville and Barbara Jardin - women's 4x100m freestyle
• Hassaan Abdel-Khalik, Blake Worsley, Frank Despond, Aly Abdel-Khalik - men's 4x200m freestyle relay

Bronze:

• Paige Schultz, Bridget Coley, Kennedy Goss and Heather Maitland women's 4x200m freestyle relay
• Hiilary Caldwell - women's 200m backstroke
• Ryan Cochrane - men's 400m freestyle
• Ryan Cochrane - men's 800m freestyle

Full results can be found here.

Heartbeat Highlights

Here are some highlights from the past week in Canadian sports.

The SportCafé website is a great place to see posts from athletes about their personal experiences. The Latest News section also have news from Canadian sports organizations.

This week's highlight posts include:

• Lex Albrecht with a post that includes a behind-the-scenes video at the Chrono Gatineau this past weekend. Click here (will be added to SportCafé website shortly).
• Rachel Siemens competed at the Canadian Weightlifting Championships where she finished 3rd. I love her enthusiasm and insight in her post. She also shared great photos. Click here.
• Sport Climbing isn't in the Olympics yet, but it is in the running to be included in 2020. Sean McColl was 4th this past weekend at the Innsbruck World Cup. He wrote a great photo blog that gives us an appreciation for sport climbing. Click here. If you prefer to read the post from his World Cup victory the week before in Log-Dragomer, Slovenia, click here. If Sean's posts have piqued your curiosity, check out the IFSC Climbing channel with videos from the Innsbruck and Log-Dragomer World Cups. You can also see him compete at the World Cup being held in Hamilton on June 1st and 2nd. Click here for more detail.

Canoe-Kayak Sprint World Cup #2

Canada's Canoe/Kayak team competed in Racice, Czech Republic this past weekend.

If you missed Sportsnet telecast on the weekend, you can view race videos by clicking here.

You can view full race results here including A finals, B finals, semi-finals and heats.

Result highlights include three gold medals for Canada, although in non-Olympic events. Unfortunately these events were not televised on Sportsnet (and videos are not available on ICF's website).

Laurence Vincent-Lapointe won gold in the C1 200m and partnered with Sara-Jane Caumartin to win the C2 500m. You can view an interview with Laurence here. Last fall the International Canoe Federation decided to not include women's canoe at the 2016 Olympics however it will be at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.

Paul Bryant won gold in the C1 5000. He was 5th in the C1 500.

Other medallists included Genevieve Beauchesne-Sevigny and KC Fraser winning bronze in the K2 Women 500m (view race video here) and Gabriel Beauchesne-Sevigny and Roland Varga in C2 Men 500m (no race video).

Diving

Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware won the silver in the 3m synchro event at a World Series event in Guadalajara, Mexico. Click here to watch the event video.

Jennifer Abel won the bronze in the 3m springboard event. Click here for the video.

In the 10m platform event, Roseline Filion won the bronze. Click here for the video.

Maxim Bouchard and Philippe Gagné were the silver medallists at a Grand Prix event in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the 10m platform event. Philippe Gagné also won the silver in the 10m platform event. At the same competition, Emma Friesen won the silver in the 3m springboard.

The Canadian diving team will be competing at the Summer Senior National Championships in Québec City this weekend to earn spots for the World Championships. The live feed will be available here starting Thursday.

Women's Sevens World Series

Rugby Sevens has been added for the 2016 Olympics.

Canada were finalists at the Cup Event held in Netherlands on the weekend.

Click here to watch video from the event.

They played the USA in the Quarter Finals (at the 1:15:15 mark on the video)

Canada met England in the semi-final (at the 4:16:30 mark)

The finals consisted of Canada and New Zealand. (at the 7:18:41 mark - although I wasn't able to get the video to work at this point. Hopefully it's an issue with my computer rather than with the video).

Here's a great article about Olympic champion Heather Moyse (bobsleigh) who played five of the six games at the event and is hoping to be chosen for the World Cup team.

Track and Field

Athletics Canada have posted Canadian results here.

Off the track, Olympian sprinters Nikkita Holder and Justyn Warner announced that they're expecting their first child on October 29th. You can read a great article about them here. Perfect timing to still be ready for Rio 2016.

Here's Justin's tweet from last week:

Justyn Warner ‏@justynwarner15 May

Look what I made #4months #October #JusKita http://instagram.com/p/ZVo4UHE8Qg/ 

Look For The Helpers

Last Monday morning, I watched the Boston Marathon online before going out for the afternoon.

I couldn't believe it when I returned home to learn of the news of the bombings.

So many stories have been written and shared since then, but the favourite quote I read was from Mr. Rogers:

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping"

From first respondents to competitors to spectators, countless people helped others last Monday.

To see examples, all you have to do is google Boston Marathon helpers and there are numerous articles detailing those who helped while facing adversity.

Yesterday, Toronto held the Yonge Street 10K run. It starts a block from my house and I have often gone to watch the start.

Seeing runners wearing special bibs reading "Runners United In Support" made this Yonge Street 10K more memorable and special.

Race director Alan Brookes who was in Boston last Monday (and London during the week) spoke at the start of the event saying that the spirit of the marathon and running would not be diminished. He said that "while we are still very much in shock and sadness, the whole community, globally, seems to have come together in shows of support and it’s wonderful that we have the opportunity in Toronto". There was then a 30 second moment of silence for Boston before the start of the event. 

The elite runners taking the start included Olympian Eric Gillis (red sleeves and black vest near the left). He would finish the race in 2nd place behind Kip Kangogo (black shorts white vest - 2nd from the right). Click here for a race recap.

The women's eventual winner Lanni Marchant is seen to the left and behind Eric.

Over 7500 runners ran the race. It was inspiring to see so many fit and happy people ready to challenge themselves. 

This is the 4th group starting.

The first group that started were the handcycles:

Unfortunately at the London Marathon yesterday, the wheelchair athletes did not start first. This in part lead to Canadian paralympian (and 2012 Boston Marathon champion) Josh Cassidy being involved in an accident when the 2012 Olympic women's marathon winner veered left at a watering station into the path of Josh who was in the process (along with multiple other wheelchair athletes) of passing the group of women leaders. The accident ruined both their chances of winning the race, but luckily not their season or careers.

The London Marathon paid tribute to Boston as did the Vancouver Sun Fun Run which saw over 48000 runners participating. The city of Boston will pause today at 2:50pm to mark the moment of the bombings a week ago.

Running (and races) are happy events where many people achieve their dream of simply completing the race or reaching a personal best. They share their achievements with family, friends and supporters. Continuing to run and pursue their passion is another way that these runners are helping everyone recover from the Boston bombings. 

Heartbeat Highlights

Here are the highlights in amateur sports during the past week.

Track & Field

Special shout-out to Olympic bronze medallist Derek Drouin who broke the Canadian indoor record while winning the Division 1 NCAA high jump with a jump of 2.35m (he won bronze with a jump of 2.29m). Read more here and see interview here. click here for other Canadian results.

Videos for the CIS Indoor Track & Field Championships are here and results list here.

Freestyle Skiing World Championships

Click here for Saturday's rebroadcast of CBC Sportsweekend's coverage of freestyle skiing and here for Sunday's.

The Freestyle Skiing World Championships wrapped up yesterday with Canada winning 10 medals.

Yesterday, on the 1 year anniversary of Nik Zoricic's death in a ski-cross race, Marielle Thompson won the silver medal in ski-cross dedicating her result to Nik. Click here for the video. The men did not fare as well perhaps affected by the memory, especially with Brady Leman's semi-final race being delayed by a crash.

Kaya Turski won the gold medal in Slopestyle followed by Dara Howell for a Canada 1-2. Click here for the video.

The men's moguls competitions saw Canada win gold and silver twice. Mikaël Kingsbury won gold in moguls and silver in dual moguls. Alex Bilodeau won gold in dual moguls and silver in moguls. His podium performance in the moguls assured him a spot on the 2014 Olympic team (Mikaël had previously qualified). Click here for the Men's moguls and here for the dual moguls.

Chloe Dufour-Lapointe won gold in the dual moguls while sister Justine won the bronze in the women's moguls. Click here for dual moguls and here for ladies' moguls.

Travis Gerrits punched his ticket to Sochi 2014 by winning the silver medal in the aerials event. Click here for video highlights.

Click here to browse CBC Sports's ski videos.

Snowboard World Cup

Dominique Maltais won the Snowboard Cross event in Arosa, Switzerland with Maelle Ricker joining her on the podium. Click here to see the race.

Matthew Morison won the silver in Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom in Arosa. He started the second run 0.38 seconds behind but made the final very exciting. Click here for the video. Caroline Calvé captured the bronze in the same event. Click here for the video.

Short Track Speed Skating World Championships

Click here for rebroadcast of CBC Sportsweekend's Saturday coverage of short track and here for Sunday's.

Canada's short track speed skating relay team of Charles Hamelin, Michael Gilday, Olivier Jean and Charles Cournoyer won gold in the 5000m relay in Debrecen, Hungary. Gilday had the "save of the century" just before the 5:30 mark of the race. There is no replay at the end, so you may want to rewind during the race to see it again. Click here for the video.

The women's relay of Marianne St-Gelais, Marie-Ève Drolet, Valérie Maltais and Jessica Hewitt won the bronze in the 3000m relay. Click here for the video.

Marianne St-Gelais won silver in the 3000m final. Click here for the video.

Charles Hamelin won bronze in the men's 3000m (video) and 1000m races (video).

Long Track Speed Skating World Cup

I have not found videos of the long track speed skating. Christine Nesbitt won the gold in the 1000m and bronze in the 1500m. Ivanie Blondin won the silver in the mass start.

Curling

Northern Ontario's team of Brad Jacobs, Ryan Fry, E.J. Harden and Ryan Harden won the Brier and will represent Canada at the World Championships in Victoria March 30th-April 7th.

Finally, Objectif Sotchi's weekend broadcast can be watched here.

Enough Already!

I can't wait for the NHL lockout* to be over. It's not because I want to see hockey or I want the NHL cities' economies to stop suffering - those are valid reasons.

I can't wait for the NHL lockout to be over because it is driving me crazy to turn on Sportsnet and anytime from 6:00am to 4:00pm one of the Sportsnet stations is showing Hockey Central. On TSN/TSN2, That's Hockey gets almost as much air time.

They talk about hockey every single day, when there is no hockey being played!

Hockey is not my favourite sport but that's not to say that I hate it. I have been to and loved Toronto Maple Leafs games. I travelled to Buffalo for the World Junior Championships a couple of years ago. If the Leafs ever make the playoffs (a girl can dream), I will 100% jump on the band wagon.  So when there is hockey being played, I have no issue with hockey being first on the highlight shows or talk shows dedicated to hockey, even if it's not my thing. Most Canadians love hockey.

I turned on the television a couple of weeks ago while preparing my lunch and started watching Sportsnet. It's a few minutes past twelve and they're talking about the New York City Marathon and whether it should get cancelled or not. I'm quite impressed to be watching a show that is talking about a timely event.  Less than five minutes later, the one host says "I'm so tired of talking about the NYC Marathon" so he ends the conversation. They move on to the next topic which is, you guessed it HOCKEY!

I almost yelled at the television set "aren't you 'so tired' of talking about hockey (when there's no hockey being played)?"

There is a hurricane that hit New York a week before a yearly event, 45000 athletes travel from around the world to compete/participate and there is a debate going on as to whether to hold the race or not. There is so much that could be discussed that is fresh and new, yet the host says "I'm so tired of talking about the NYC Marathon". The host can talk about hockey every day during an 80 game season, but he can't talk for more than five minutes on an event that happens once a year?

I so need a new sports channel that showcases more than the NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB. It's not that I don't love those sports. I watch my fair share of games/highlights/playoffs but there's more to the sporting world than four sports. It's frustrating to see our Canadian athletes competing around the world every weekend with little or no mention on our multiple sports channels.

As the lockout continues, it drives me even more crazy to go to a sports channel and hear them continue to talk about hockey. What can they possibly be talking about? There's a lockout going on. There is no hockey being played. Some days the owners and the players aren't even talking.

So enough already!

Let me know when it's resolved and let's talk about something else until then.

*An earlier version of this blog post called the lockout a strike which has now been corrected. Thx to @EricMacKenzie for pointing it out.

It's About The Journey

Last week, TSN2 showed a 30 minute program about the 4x100m relay at the London 2012 Olympics.  In a post in August, I explained why I didn't blog during or following the Olympics. You can read it here. I had a lot of thoughts, but once the Olympics were over, I thought it was too late.

Seeing the relay again last week, I was compelled to write my thoughts. It was one of the highlights of London 2012 for me.

I was so excited that Canada qualified for the final. Not to take anything away from the team, but with Canada having only one runner (Justyn Warner) competing in the 100m event, I didn't realize how great our team could be.  I remembered Jared Connaughton from the 2008 Olympics and had seen Gavin Smellie, Seyi Smith and Justyn compete at the Toronto International Track & Field Games in July. You can read the post about that here.

It's sometimes difficult in a 400m race to really know who's leading. You look at the staggers between the lanes to see if there's a runner making up a stagger, but it really only shows the difference between those lanes.

With Canada on the lane to the inside of the Jamaican team, it was difficult to gauge how well they were doing. Jamaica are so strong that they were pulling away from Canada on the back straight, but where was Canada overall?

As Jared Connaughton makes the final turn and passes the baton to Justyn Warner who finishes the turn, we realize that Canada are in about 5th. I was so excited and then Warner passes 4th and is running down the runner in 3rd.  I was jumping up and down watching his incredible run.

For those minutes when we thought they won the bronze, I was so excited. When the disqualification was announced, my heart went out to them and for days and weeks later.

I have often thought of this race since.  You wonder why it happened the way it did.  When I do, I am reminded of the quote: "everything happens for a reason, even if we don't understand the reason at the time".

I also find it ironic that if they had won the bronze medal, there probably wouldn't have been a 30 minute special about the race.  Sportsnet Magazine wouldn't have run a full page story on Connaughton (see November 5th issue).

But then, this is sports: "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat". This is what makes sports so compelling.

The reason we compete in sports and the reason that the Olympics are so special is that the winner is not determined until we compete. The Olympics are every four years.  Dozens of athletes want to win and believe they can medal in dozens of sports. Only three medals are won in each one.  This means heartbreak for hundreds of athletes.

At the Olympic Heroes parade this fall, I was speaking to a swimmer who downplayed his celebrity status. We were discussing whether he wanted to be on the float or walking beside.  I commented that on the float, both sides of the street could see him. If he walked, he should try to be visible on both sides so that if someone is in the crowd was wanting to see him, they would. He made a joke about who would be wanting to see him in particular because he came in 17th.

So much attention is given to medals at the Olympics, but to me (and countless others) it's more than the medals. Each person on Team Canada is an Olympian!! There are millions of people who dream or have dreamed of becoming an Olympian who never did or never will.

People who lined the streets of Toronto to cheer our Olympians' homecoming came to see our Olympic Team, not just our medallists.

Part of the Olympic experience is the journey that gets you there.  I recently thought we had messed up my son's course selection. It looked like he may not get his bilingual certificate at graduation (without some reshuffling of courses). My first thought was, imagining all those years of french courses and he doesn't get the certificate, but it didn't take me long to correct myself. It's not the certificate that's important, it's that he learned a second language. Which brought my thoughts to the Olympic experience.

Competing and training for an Olympic Games is a journey. It's pushing yourself and seeing how great you can be. It's the lessons learned along the way. Being an Olympian is a huge achievement. Performing your best at the Olympics is amazing. Winning a medal is rare and stupendous.

The 4x100m relay team from Canada crossed the finish line 3rd. The disqualification took away the bronze medal, but it doesn't take away the achievement or the journey.

Toronto International Track & Field Games

Leading up to the London 2012 Games, we had a chance in Toronto to see some of our Olympians compete in the Toronto International Track & Field Games on July 11th.

The men's 100m race consisted of three members of the 4x100 relay for London 2012.  Justyn Warner, Seyi Smith and Gavin Smellie.

Bruny Surin (white shirt) presented the sprinters with their medals.

The women's 800m race was won by Melissa Bishop followed by Jessica Smith:

The men's 800m was won by Geoff Harris.

Later in the evening, Geoff ran the first couple of laps of the 1500m then Nate Brennan won the race.  It was starting to get dark during this race, so this is the only photo that turned out.

Jenna Martin was our Olympian running in the 400m.

It was also an opportunity to see some up and coming athletes and some events that I hadn't seen before, like the pole vault.

The men's 110m hurdles featured Olympic decathlete Damian Warner in lane 5 who won the race.

The main event, named after Randy Starkman was the 100m women's hurdles.  With such great depth in Canada, we have five women who could represent us in London 2012.  Unfortunately we could only send three and two of them were in this race:  Phylicia George and Nikita Holder (lanes 4 and 5).  Racing against them are past Olympians Perdita Felicien and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (lanes 3 and 6).

The crowd was standing so my visibility was obstructed.  Nikita Holder won the race.

After the race, Nikita Holder and fiance Justyn Warner shared a photo op on the podium.

Later, current and past Olympians signed autographs and encouraged young runners 

to follow their dreams.

 Phylicia George

Perdita Felicien

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep

It was an exciting evening of racing that even had some excitement in the stands with Jamaican gold medallist Asafa Powell (2008 4x100m relay) who spent most of the evening signing autographs and posing for photos once it was announced he was in the crowd.