Island athletes primed for track and field worlds

Shrek was playing in movie theatres and I’m Like a Bird by Victoria’s Nelly Furtado on the radio the last time the world track and field championships were held in North America in 2001 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.

Adam Keenan was eight years old and in elementary school in Victoria and yet to throw his first hammer, never mind probably even knowing that one could actually be thrown for sport. Cam Levins was 12-years-old and only starting to run in Grade 7 with the Comox Valley Cougars Track Club.

Both are on the 59-athlete Canadian team for the 2022 world championships at Eugene, Oregon, in their first return to this continent since Edmonton 2021.

While Canada finished without a medal in the 2001 worlds — fifth place by Victoria running great Diane Cummins in the women’s 800 metres was the host nation’s top finish — there should be several Canadian podium performances over the 10 days at hallowed Hayward Field in Eugene, a city nicknamed Track Town USA because of its renowned embrace of running culture. The world championships began Friday and run through July 24.

Canada comes in after winning six track and field medals last year in the Tokyo Olympics and has seven Olympic medallists on the squad, including high-profile names such as sprinter Andre De Grasse and decathlete Damian Warner, four medallists from the last world championships in 2019 at Doha and seven athletes currently ranked top-eight in the world.

Many of the Canadian athletes trained at McLeod Stadium in Langley, where the Canadian trials were held, before departing for Eugene.

“Everybody’s been super excited, relaxed, operating like a well-oiled machine,” said Canadian head coach Glenroy Gilbert, in a statement.

“I think that’s one of our strengths — those athletes who achieved that high level of success are still here — and our new athletes come on board and leverage them for support. Folks are really connecting across age groups and event groups.”

These are indeed heady times for Team Canada, added 1996 Atlanta Olympics relay gold-medallist Gilbert: “If other teams can do it, why not Canada? For years our goal has been to develop athletes who can perform on demand — on the biggest stage — and that’s what we are expecting of them.”

Keenan goes into his competition today as the five-time Canadian hammer champion and has been biting at the edges of international podiums. The former Lambrick Park Secondary throwing star and 2011 B.C. high school track and field male athlete of the year, and former Big Sky Conference champion in NCAA Div. 1 with Northern Arizona, was fourth in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

This year has the added challenge of the tight turnaround to the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, from July 28 to Aug. 8 (track and field at Alexander Stadium from July 30 to Aug. 7), with most of Canada’s team committed to doing the double. That’s because the best don’t shy away from these moments but rise to meet them. Keenan isn’t concerned about the tight double: “You spend all these years dreaming of getting to this level. It’s here now. And you embrace the opportunity,” he said.

Because fellow-Islander Levins’ event is the marathon, the tight turnaround will be impossible for the Canadian record-holder as back-to-back marathons in such a short span are near impossible to do.

With only one of the two international events available to the veteran runner from Black Creek, Levins of course chose the worlds over the Commonwealths. Not that the two-time Olympian is a stranger to the latter, winning the bronze medal at Hampden Park in the 10,000 metres at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.