PCA looks to defend Atlantic title
Club off to Saint John this weekend for championships
Over at the track and field facility in Stellarton, success isn’t a new thing for competitors with the Pictou County Athletics program.
A total of 43 athletes – some of them part of the coaching staff representing PCA – will board a team bus on Saturday morning and make the 3½hour trip to Moncton for the Atlantic track and field championships, which will start that day at 2 p.m.
The organization will be looking to defend its 2015 club championship.
“To medal would be nice,” says Jake Temple, who does field events; the javelin is his specialty and he’s ranked No. 1 in Atlantic Canada (Youth) in that event.
Temple placed 12th at the Legion track and field championships last summer.
“You want to see yourself getting better – progressing, pushing yourself.”
But there’s little point in athletes putting pressure on themselves, said Matt Fraser, in his second season coaching with PCA and who will also be running in three middle distance events up in Saint John.
“Just go out and have fun and the results will come,” he said on Thursday night at the Pioneer Coal Track, where some of the competitors had gathered for a training session.
He watched as the athletes warmed up, before some of them went off into separate little groups to work on their respective events.
“I think this weekend is going to be real good,” he said, “(and) hopefully we’ll take the banner home again this year.”
In a sport like track and field, athletes can only control what they do themselves, try to put perform at peak level and see where they stand when the smoke clears.
“That’s literally all you can do,” Fraser said.
Logan Coulet, a Loch Broom resident brought home five medals from Atlantics in 2015.
He won gold in the high jump, javelin and the 4x100m relay, and captured a bronze medal in both the 100m and 200m sprint events. He was practicing the triple jump along with fellow club member Kaelan Schmidt on Thursday.
“Individually, I’d like to come home with a medal in all three jumps,” Coulet said, referring to the high jump, long jump and the triple jump.
“For the club? I’d really like to see us come back with another Atlantic championship.”