One last test for track and field hopefuls
A look at Canada’s top track and field athletes competing at the national championships in Edmonton this weekend to qualify for the world meet in Beijing in August and test themselves, one last time, before the Toronto Pan Am Games.
ANDRE DE GRASSE
Age: 20 City: Markham
Previous best: 100 metres: 9.97; 200 metres: 20.03
The man dubbed the nation’s new sprint king was first spotted at a high school track meet, running in basketball shorts, just three years ago. Now, he is the Canadian record holder in the 200 m and the first Canadian sprinter to run a sub 10-second 100 m in a decade and a half. In June, at the NCAA finals, he cruised to victory in the 100 and 200 races in astonishing wind-aided (unofficial) times — 9.75 and 19.58 seconds, respectively.
NICOLE SIFUENTES
Age: 29 City: Winnipeg
Previous best: 1,500 metres: 4:06.82 In her first global outing as a junior she made the final, in 2010 she made her breakthrough to senior team, and in 2012 she became an Olympian. Sifuentes won a bronze medal at the 2014 world and is looking for a repeat medal run this year.
CAMERON LEVINS
Age: 26 City: Black Creek, B.C.
Previous best: 5,000 metres: 13:19.16; 10,000 metres: 27.07.51
He was so far off the running radar that he had to get his scholarship to the University of Southern Utah through an Internet recruiting site. He shot to prominence just before the London Olympics when he won the 5,000 and 10,000 races in his final NCAA season. He was 11th in the 10,000 in London and won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
CHRISTABEL NETTEY
Age: 24 City: Surrey, B.C.
Previous best: Long jump: 6.99 me- tres
Originally motivated to catch up to her talented older sister, she’s now jumped farther than any Canadian woman in history and has some of the longest jumps in the world this year. A back injury kept her from getting to the London Olympics and cemented her decision to focus on long. She left the 2014 Commonwealth Games with a bronze medal and a desire to upgrade that colour this summer at the Pan Ams and world championships.
DEREK DROUIN
Age: 25 Home: Corunna, Ont.
Previous best: High jump: 2.40 m Once a hurdler, his lanky six-footfive frame chose the event he excels in for him. At the 2012 London Olympics, he won a bronze medal, Canada’s first medal in high jump in nearly four decades, despite being months behind in his training because of ankle surgery. He went on to break the Canadian high jump record and end his collegiate career in 2013 with a fifth title, making him the most decorated high jumper in NCAA history. He won gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
TIM NEDOW
Age: 24 Home: Brockville, Ont.
Previous best: Shot put: 20.51 m He may be one of the few athletes on the planet who once won high jump, triple jump and shot put in a single meet. That was in high school and now the six-foot-fiver is strictly a thrower. He trained with Olympic medal-winning shot putter Dylan Armstrong, who is currently recovering from surgery, and Nedow won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
ELIZABETH GLEADLE
Age: 26 Home: Vancouver
Previous best: Javelin: 64.83 m She threw her first javelin in Grade 8 and, being the only one in the gym class who didn’t flip it or hit herself in the back of the head, was asked to join the team. She won her city final that year and, before long, had the junior record. She was the first Canadian woman to throw a javelin at the Olympics since 1988 and had to break the Canadian record to qualify for London. She was 12th there and fifth at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
SHAWN BARBER
Age: 24 Home: Toronto
Previous best: Pole vault: 5.91 m He was just five years old when he started using makeshift poles to jump over things around the family farm in New Mexico and by 10 he was already beating some high school athletes in the pole vault pit. Now, the NCAA pole vault champion has broken the Canadian record more times than he can remember.
SULTANA FRIZELL
Age: 30 Home: Perth, Ont.
Previous best: Hammer throw: 75.73 m
The two-time Olympian was a figure skater until she turned 16, developed hips and height, and switched sporting careers. At the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the Canadian record holder defended her gold from four years earlier in dramatic fashion — setting the Commonwealth record three times during her competition. She was Canada’s flag bearer at the closing ceremony.