Live track and field action returns Saturday

Tristan McDougall can’t wait to compete in this Saturday’s track and field meet at the Niagara Olympic Club.

“I am very happy and thrilled to feel the adrenaline and be able to compete again,” the 15-year-old St. Catharines resident said. “It feels really good.”

The Grade 11 student at Governor Simcoe is looking forward to the meet that starts at 10 a.m. and runs until 3 p.m.

“I want to have a PB (personal best) throw, meet my competitors and see how they are looking,” the Niagara Olympic Club member said.

Like many other high school athletes, McDougall lost the spring track and field season to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was aiming for the zone (javelin) record, I was trying to break 54 metres and I was working so hard to do that,” he said. “It was discouraging not being able to throw.”

He threw that distance in practice recently.

“It was ‘Come on. Really?’ ”

Rather than sulk, McDougall used the down time to his advantage.

“I have been working out a lot to get stronger for next season,” he said. “I want to PB (record a personal best) and medal at nationals.”

Tristan’s father, Randy, a coach at the NOC, feels competition is crucial for the development of all athletes.

“It’s to keep the kids motivated, to let them know their training is going the way we are telling them it is going and that they can see it,” Randy said. “It was a hard year on them to take three months off and some of them listened to us and trained during those three months. To have something to show for it is really important for these kids.”

The meets are also important for athletes going into Grade 12 this fall who have scholarship aspirations.

“They didn’t have an opportunity to showcase in the spring and they are getting a lot of schools saying that they just need to see something this year,” Randy said. “Some schools are understanding that the marks (results) might not be as good as they would have like to have seen because the training wasn’t as good but other schools want to see what they would normally see. It has been tough on the kids to know that.”

Tristan is one of 24 NOC athletes that will take part in the meet as well as athletes from other local clubs.

“They are very excited to compete,” NOC president Sharon Stewart said.

Saturday’s meet is one of three scheduled at the NOC

“The demand has been far more than I had ever anticipated or expected,” she said.

The deadline for entries was supposed to be Wednesday at 4 p.m. but the meet is already full.

“I have people begging and pleading to get in. It is really hard because you know how hungry kids are,” Stewart said. “There are a few other meets out there but when people are coming from Windsor to race here or Olympians who trying to make some sort of standard are coming here, that’s crazy.”

Among the notables coming to St. Catharines are: 2016 Olympian Brittany Crew (shot put); Sarah Mitten, who has already qualified to represent Canada at 2021 Olympics in shot put; triple jumper Caroline Ehrhardt, an eight-time national champion and 2021 Olympic hopeful; and, Olympic hopeful and Welland native Trinity Tutti, who will be looking to be the first Canadian female to throw more than 60 metres in discus since the 1970s.

Saturday’s meet will include the 100, 200 and 800 metres, triple jump, shot put, discus and hammer.

A meet on Sept. 12 will feature the  200, 400 and 1,500 metres, javelin, discus, hammer and long jump and a Sept. 26 meet will include the 400, 800 and 3,000 metres and possibly the 100 metres again, javelin, discus, hammer and high jump.

“We have to see how the numbers work the first time and how we survive all of that with the gate regulations and traffic patterns inside,” Stewart said.

The COVID protocols that will be used for the meet include: an on-line questionnaire that must be completed by athletes 24 hours before the meet; a maximum of 100 athletes in the facility, excluding coaches, officials and volunteers, and fans wanting to watch the competition must do so from the fence surrounding the facility; having 12 athletes in a flight for jumps and throws; four athletes on the track instead of eight, using lanes one, three, five and seven; throwers have to use their own equipment and retrieve the equipment themselves once thrown; and, high jumpers have to have their own personal tarp to put on the mat when they jump and remove it when they are done.

“Everything will be a little more time-consuming,” Stewart said.

Niagara Olympic Club members have been back training since June.

“We were very fortunate when Athletics Canada and Athletics Ontario came out with the protocols we were ready to go and our facility was accessible to us,” she said. “There are many teams who train at a university track and have not had to access to training in a facility. That is very challenging for jumpers and throwers to not have the technical equipment that they need for training.”