Islanders Mason, Keenan ‘bookend’ Commonwealth track and field team
Sprinter De Grasse to lead Canadian squad in April in Australia
Veteran Mike Mason of Nanoose Bay and senior national team rookie Adam Keenan of Victoria will represent the bookends in terms of experience in field events for Canada at the 2018 Commonwealth Games from April 4-15 at Gold Coast, Australia.
The 46-athlete Canadian track and field team to the Games, led by 2016 Rio Olympics sprint sensation Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont., was named Wednesday.
Mason, a graduate of Ballenas Secondary in Parksville, is a three-time Olympian in the high jump and a silver and bronze medallist, respectively, from the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
National champion Keenan is an emerging hammer thrower out of Lambrick Park Secondary and was Big Sky Conference champion in the NCAA with Northern Arizona.
Keenan is part of a strong representation in the field events from the Island.
The Island contingent includes two-time Olympian and 2010 Delhi and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medallist women’s hammer thrower Sultana Frizell, who trains in Victoria with local throws coach Sheldan Gmitroski.
Mason, 31, and Frizell, 33, could attest for the 24-year-old Keenan that he would be well advised to use the Commonwealth Games as a stepping stone. So, too, could decathlete Damian Warner of London, Ont., who was also named to the Canadian team for the Gold Coast Games.
“The last Commonwealth Games played a big role in helping me acquire the skills and experience needed to be on the podium in Rio,” Warner said in a statement.
“Athletes don’t get many opportunities to compete in a multi-sport Games, so the chance to live in a village, compete in a big stadium and go up against top international competition is invaluable,” said Warner, who went from winning gold at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games to bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Rachel Cliff and Natasha Wodak, who were 1-2 Sunday in the women’s race of the Harriers Pioneer 8K on the Saanich Peninsula, were both named to represent Canada in the 10,000 metres at Gold Coast. Wodak’s club is the Prairie Inn Harriers while Cliff is unaffiliated.
Canada will be looking to rally from being shockingly shut out at the 2017 world championships in London after its breakthrough sixmedal performance in track and field at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Having De Grasse go down with injury before the worlds last summer didn’t help, but he looks to be back in form for Gold Coast.
Canada will be coached by Glenroy Gilbert, who competed in the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games, and won gold in the 4x100 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
“The Commonwealth Games have always been a foundation, a stepping stone, to the world championships and Olympic/Paralympic Games,” Gilbert said in a statement.
The team physician is former Canadian international runner Dr. Paddy McCluskey of Victoria.