Track Cycling: Milton International Challenge Preview

The Milton Velodrome officially opened today.

"The Velodrome saw its first athletes and spectators from January 3 to 6, at the Canadian Track Cycling Championships, presented by Cisco. From January 9 to 11, the Milton International Challenge, presented by Cisco, will welcome cyclists from around the world for a final push for medals and prizes in one of the last events on the calendar for the 2014-15 UCI World Cup season." Cycling Canada

You can read Cycling Canada's full announcement by clicking here.


This week is the first chance for the athletes and spectators to see this new venue which is getting rave reviews including this one from Canadian cyclist James Orton.

I have never seen track cycling in person so am very excited to have the opportunity to see this exciting sport tomorrow. Tickets are still available for $10.

One of the advantages to hosting the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games is that these new venues are being opened in the Greater Toronto Area allowing us to attend events we would not have hosted in the past.

As an added bonus, we have the opportunity to see Olympic bronze medallist Jasmin Glaesser and Olympians Monique Sullivan and Joseph Veloce compete along with the rest of Team Canada. Click here for the full entry list.

I especially love the new "National Champion kit".

Cycling Canada released a preview article entitled Team Canada ready for Milton International Challenge.

"The timber boards of the Cisco PanAm Velodrome are ready to welcome athletes from nine countries in Milton, ON as the 2015 Milton International Challenge is only days away. 

The venue played host to the 2014 Canadian Track Championships this past weekend, and Canadian athletes took the opportunity to feel the track prior to the Milton International Challenge. 

Athletes representing Canada, USA, Jamaica, Trinidad, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom have landed in the Greater Toronto Area to compete in the Canada’s top track cycling race."

"The event kicks off on Friday, January 9, and ends on Sunday, January 11. The full schedule of the Milton International Challenge is posted at http://www.toronto2015.org/CNC-MIC-test-event/schedule 

Tickets for the event can be purchased here."

You can read the article that details who to watch in its entirety here.


Competition Schedule

Friday, January 9

Session 1, 1:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
(W-TS, M-TS) Women’s & men’s team sprint - Qualification
(W-TP, M-TP) Women’s & men’s team pursuit – Qualification
(JW-TP, JM-TP) Junior women’s & men’s team pursuit – Final
(M-SCR) Men’s scratch heat – Qualification
(JW-TP, JM-TS) Junior women’s & junior men’s team pursuit – Ceremonies

Session 2, 5:00 p.m. to 10:15 p.m.
(W-S, M-S) Women’s & men’s sprint – Qualifications
(JW-S, JM-S) Junior women’s & men’s sprint – Qualifications
(W-TS, M-TS) Women’s & men’s team sprint – Final
(W-TP) Women’s & men’s team pursuit - Final
(W-S, M-S) Women’s & men’s sprint – 1/16 Final
(W-S) Women’s sprint – Repechage
(W-SCR, M-SCR) Women’s & men’s scratch race – Final
(W-TS, M-TS) Women’s & men’s team sprint – Ceremonies
(W-TP, M-TP) Women’s & men’s team pursuit - Ceremonies
(W-SCR, M-SCR) Women’s & men’s scratch race – Ceremonies


Saturday, January 10

Session 1, 10:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.
(M-OMI-PR) Men’s omnium points race – Qualification
(W-OMI, M-OMI) Women’s & men’s omnium - Scratch race
(W-S, M-S) Women’s & men’s sprint – 1/8 Final
(JW-S, JM-S) Junior women’s & men’s sprint – Quarter-final
(W-S, M-S) Women’s & men’s sprint – Repechage
(W-S, M-S) Women’s & men’s sprint – Quarter-final
(JW-S, JM-S) Junior women’s & men’s sprint – Final (5-8)

Session 2, 4:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
(W-OMII, M-OMII) Women’s & men’s omnium - Individual pursuit
(JW-S, JM-S) Junior women’s & men’s sprint – Semifinal
(W-S, M-S) Women’s & men’s sprint - Semifinal
(W-OMIII, M-OMIII) Women’s & men’s omnium - Elimination race
(JW-S, JM-S) Junior women’s & men’s sprint - Finals
(W-S, M-S) Women’s & men’s sprint - Finals
(JW-S, JM-S) Junior women’s & men’s sprint - Ceremonies
(W-S, M-S) Women’s & men’s sprint - Ceremonies


Sunday, January 11

Session 1 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
(W-OMIV, M-OMIV) Women’s & men’s omnium - Time trial
(JW-K, JM-K) Junior women’s & men’s keirin - First round
(W-K, M-K) Women’s & men’s keirin - First round
(W-OMV, M-OMV) Women’s & men’s omnium - Flying lap
(W-K, M-K) Women’s & men’s keirin - Repechage
(JW-K) Junior men’s keirin – Final (7-12)
(W-K, M-K) Women’s & men’s keirin – Second Round
(JW-K, JM-K) Junior women’s & men’s keirin – Final
(W-K, M-K) Women’s & men’s keirin – Final (7-12)
(W-K, M-K) Women’s & men’s keirin – Final
(JW-K, JM-K) Junior women’s & men’s keirin – Ceremonies
(W-K, M-K) Women’s & men’s keirin – Ceremonies
(W-OMVI, M-OMVI) Women’s & men’s omnium - Points race
(M-MAD) Men’s madison - Final
(M-MAD) Men’s madison - Ceremonies
(W-OMVI, M-OMVI) Women’s & men’s omnium - Ceremonies

Heartbeat Highlights

Here are some of the highlights from the past week in amateur sports.

Caroline Calvé won the Ladies' Snowboard Parallel Slalom World Cup race in Moscow. Click here for the race video. She posted a photo on Twitter of herself and the pilot on her way home with the very large trophy she won. That's quite the carry-on!

Canada's moguls team dominated this past weekend with 4 of the 6 podium spots. Mikaël Kingsbury and Audrey Robichaud won the men's and women's moguls competitions in Japan. Alexandre Bilodeau and Chloé Dufour-Lapointe joined them on the podiums, both in third place. Click here for the men's highlights and here for the women's.

Canada didn't fare as well in the dual moguls the next day with one podium performance. Alexandre Bilodeau finished second. Click here for the race video.

Alex Harvey made Canadian history by winning the bronze medal in the 1.5km sprint at the Nordic Skiing World Championships. It was the first podium ever for a Canadian in an individual event. Click here to watch the final, semi and quarter final. Cliquez ici pour lire un reportage en français avec une entrevue avec Alex. In the relay, Alex and Devon Kershaw were 0.03 seconds from the podium in the relay.


Canada's Luge team comprising of Alex Gough, Sam Edney and doubles Tristan Walker and Justin Snith won bronze in the team relay event at the Sochi World Cup finishing a successful season that is showing great promise leading into the Olympics next year.

After being 26th in the downhill portion of the Super Combined, Marie-Michelle Gagnon was second in the slalom to finish a personal best 5th overall.

It wasn't a stellar performance by our Men's Alpine Ski team at Garmish, but if you love to watch skiing, CBC have full race videos on their website. Click here.

If you love speed skating, click here to watch CBC's coverage of the World All-Round Championships.

Chris Williamson with guide Robin Féry won the first gold medal for Canada at the IPC Alpine World Skiing Championships in Molina, Italy by winning the Super Combined Visually Impaired. You can view the highlights here. Canada has nine medals so far at the Championships with two days to go.

The Para-Nordic World Championships are starting today and is being streamed live online here with race videos also available on the YouTube Channel.  Brian McKeever and guide Eric Carleton started the championships strongly for Canada by winning the Visually Impaired Cross-Country Classic Sprints. Click here for the race video.

With spring around the corner, many winter sports are ending while summer sports have started their seasons. Bobsleigh and skeleton finished their seasons last week. Click here to read Team Spring's season review and click here to read Melissa Hollingsworth's thoughts on her season.

At the FINA Diving Grand Prix in Germany, sisters Carol-Ann and Pamela Ware won the bronze medal in the 10m synchronized event.

The women's team pursuit won the bronze medal at the UCI World Track Cycling Championships. 2012 Olympic bronze medallists Gillian Carleton and Jasmin Glaesser teamed up with Olympic alternate Laura Brown to repeat their 3rd place finish.

Antoine Valois-Fortier won another bronze medal at the Judo Düsseldorf Grand Prix. For fans of judo, you can watch Day 1 coverage here and Day 2 here. I looked on the videos for Antoine's match but didn't find it. The other bronze medal match in his weight category is at the beginning of the Day 2 video.

Finally, click here to watch Objectif Sotchi, Radio Canada's weekly show in french featuring Canadians on the road to Sochi. This week's episode includes Erik Guay, Chris Del Bosco (English interview with subtitles) and Sochi World Cup highlights, a bobsleigh recruitment test for Winnipeg Blue Bomber Pierre-Luc Labbé and a look back at Olympic gold and silver medallist in alpine skiing, Nancy Green.

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.

Olympic Block Party

Toronto hosted an Olympic Block Party as a send-off to Canada's Olympic team to the 2012 Olympics.

I didn't know what to expect before arriving. I had seen tweets from past Olympians who would be there, but not much from current Olympians. I knew Hedley would be playing, but besides that, I wasn't sure what to expect.

A few hours before the party, I did see a tweet saying that Olympic torch bearers were there. I was especially hoping to see an Olympic torch (and possibly hold one).

Within a couple of minutes of entering the party, the first thing I saw was an Olympic torch. The torch bearer was more than happy to let me hold it, and just like that, my day is made!

My kids also took a turn:

There was a large banner for everyone to write their well-wishes to the athletes:


After signing the banner, a reporter (Chris Hall) asks me questions (more on this later):


Meeting another torch bearer:


PJmixer getting a close-up of the torch:

Writing Cheerios cheer postcards to athletes (just like I did on Opening Ceremonies day in Vancouver in 2010):
The rhythmic gymnastics team poses for a photo (by pjmixer):

2012 Olympians gather on stage:

One last chance to hold an Olympic torch:

Headley takes the stage:

My daughter recognizes swimmer Brittany Maclean, so we ask for a photo. We had watched her emotional experience when her sister qualified for the Olympics at the National Olympic trials.

Mark Tewksbury, Olympic gold medallist and 2012 Chef De Mission gets the crowd cheering:


Brian Stemmle, 3-time Olympian gains younger fans:

Earlier, I mentioned that I was interviewed. Here is what Chris Hall wrote for DurhamRegion.com (you can read the full article here)

A short stone's throw from Ms. Tutty was a large, sprawling white banner emblazoned with Canadian flags and the Olympic rings. A crowd of people, four or five deep, were eagerly waiting, with a marker in hand, to scribble their own well-wishes to Canada's athletes.
With her signature freshly scrawled on the board, Suzanne Sewell walked away and smiled to herself. To say she is an enthusiastic supporter of Canada's athletes would be an understatement.
"The Olympics are every day for me," said the Toronto woman.
She was first bit by the Olympic bug in 1988 and since then has turned the Games from a pastime into a passion.
"I'm here to support the Canadian team and wish them luck. I'll be watching every minute," said Ms. Sewell, who attended the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010.
To prove her passion, Ms. Sewell was asked to name her favourite Canadian athlete.
"Just one," she asked, before listing five.
Ms. Sewell follows the highs and lows of Canada's amateurs day-in and day-out, keeping track of their personal bests and following them on Twitter. She's even got her own Olympic-themed handle: olympichearts.
"I want them all to do well," she said with a smile.

So thankful I went to the block party. What an experience. I felt a little closer to the 2012 Olympics and can't wait for The Games to start!

Canadian Marathoners

For the first time since 1996, Canada will have three male marathoners at the Olympics.  We haven't had a marathoner compete since 2000.

Dylan Wykes qualified at the Rotterdam Marathon to become our third Olympian.  Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis qualified last fall at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.  You can read my post about them here.

You can follow our Olympians on Twitter or on their blogs:

Reid Coolsaet:  
www.twitter.com/reidcoolsaet 
www.reidcoolsaet.com

Eric Gillis:
www.twitter.com/nishrunner
www.ericgillis.org

Dylan Wykes:
www.twitter.com/dylanwykes
www.dylanwykes.com

Dylan's marathon didn't start well as he stumbled and scraped his knees.  He posted a photo of his knees after the race on Twitter.  It's amazing that he ran a personal best after that incident.  His time of 2:10:47 is the second fastest by a Canadian all-time.  The women have not surpassed the Canadian standard and haven't qualified for the London Olympics yet.

The great thing about following athletes on Twitter is that you can find out when they are racing.  Often times you can catch the races on television, on live-stream online or even in person, like I did on Sunday.

The Toronto Yonge Street 10K was starting in my neighbourhood.  A few times a year, races start in my neighbourhood.  Sometimes I go watch the start, while other times, I sleep in or don't realize there's a race.  When Reid tweeted that he'd be racing, I took the opportunity to see an Olympian in person.

I got there early enough to see him warm-up.

The beginning of the race

Reid would win, with Kip Kangogo 2nd and Josephat Ongeri 3rd. Tara Korir won the women's race, with Kate Van Buskirk 2nd and Rachel Hannah 3rd.

I did drive downtown to see if I could capture the finish, but unfortunately, the runners were faster. It was an exciting finish as shared by Canada Running Series on YouTube: