Leawood, Wood move on to next Training Ground

Memorial University track and field athletes Stacey Leawood and Andrew Wood will take the next step in their Olympic quests after being selected to compete in the RBC Training Ground Atlantic regional competition later this spring. Training Ground is the Canadian Olympic Committee’s (COC) national series of combines conducted with the aim of bringing new and, to this point, undiscovered athletes into the Canada’s Olympic talent pool. Leawood, a 19-year-old from Mount Pearl is a former Canada Games basketball player who is now a heptathlete on Memorial’s track and field team. Wood, a 21-year-old from St. John’s, is a sprinter who won a silver medal for Memorial in the 60-metre dash at the 2017 AUS track and field championships.

They were among a group of athletes from a range of sports who participated in a combine in St. John’s earlier this month. The athletes were measured for anthropometric (body size and proportion) suitability, and performed speed, power, strength and endurance benchmark tests in front of officials from the COC and 11 national sport organizations

Leawood recorded the top performances in two of the strength tests (incline chest throw and mid-thigh pull). Overall, her results were the fourth best of any female in Atlantic Canada so far this year.

Wood recorded top performances in five tests (vertical jump, 10m sprint, 30m sprint, 40m sprint and the strength incline chest throw). His overall results were the third best of any male in the Atlantic region in 2017. Leawood and Wood advance to the regional final in Halifax on June 10, when they will compete against top performers from other Atlantic Canadian events in Fredericton, Saint John, N.B., Antigonish, N.S., Halifax and Charlottetown. In addition to funding and training support from a national sport organization, top performers also win a trip to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea to experience the Olympics firsthand.