Thorold Elite captures U16 provincial title
A gold medal by Thorold Elite Track Club’s boys 4×400-metre relay team helped the club capture the team title at the Athletics Ontario U16 Track and Field Championships. Photo by Steve Fife.
Three golds, one silver and a bronze medal by Carson Gauthier helped propel the Thorold Elite Track Club to the team title at the Athletics Ontario U16 Track and Field Championships held in St. Catharines last weekend.
The Thorold Elite Club won the overall team title with 170 points followed by United Tamil Sports Club (146), London Western Track and Field Club (107.5), Durham Dragons Athletics (75) and Laurel Creek (73). Thorold Elite beat out more than 40 others clubs to win the crown.
In 2019, the Thorold Elite Track Club won the U14 division provincial title and set its sights on winning the U16 championship the following year before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled all provincial championships. This past weekend, the club remained good on its goal.
“It’s a testament to what we are doing to come from not even existing five years ago in 2016 to winning provincial titles within just a few years,” Thorold Elite head coach Steve Fife said. “There are so many great clubs and it’s definitely an honour for us and we are grateful to all of the coaches and athletes for their hard work.”
Fife never doubted his team could place first but was a little worried because the squad wasn’t operating at full capacity and that the unusual length of the season had taken its toll.
“Normally our season is finished at the end of July so having the championship pushed into late August and the dates changed a bunch of times meant a lot of kids away on vacations, other sports starting back up and creating conflicts. We really only had about 70 per cent of our team participating.”
Members of the championship squad were Eva Atkins, Charlotte Berner, Evan Blake, Fenway Breckels, Neila Cesar, Tommy Dallman, Mikhail Dwyer, Madison Eaton, Layla Gallant, Carson Gauthier, Tyrese Gibson, William Gibson, Anna Harmsworth, Matthew Kleinsmith, Jordyn Kilty, Ayla Laing, Victoria Massoom, Sheridan McCready, Cassie Orr, Sammy Tonnies, Coco Van Nynattan, and Ava Young.
“Next year, a lot of these kids will move into the U18 category and I don’t know if we will have enough numbers there to warrant winning U18 next year but I’m sure we can break into the top three or five and we will continue to have a very solid U16 group as well,” Fife said.
Leading the way for Thorold Elite were: Gauthier, gold in javelin, discus and high jump, silver in 100-metre hurdles and bronze in shot put; Dallman, gold in hammer throw; Young, gold in javelin; under-16 boys 4×400-metre relay, gold; Gibson, silver in hammer throw; Kleinsmith, bronze in 1200 metres; under-16 girls 4×100-metre relay, bronze; and, under-16 girls 4×800-metre relay, bronze.
The championship under-16 boys 4×400-metre relay almost never happened. When Thorold Elite looked to put a team together, it was one runner short.
“There was one boy that I knew we could count on and I knew he would run it if we needed him to, but he was also quite a bit younger than the other boys,” Fife said.
That runner, 11-year-old Evan Blake, came back early from a weekend camping trip to run the relay against 14 and 15 year olds.
“Even though he’s young, he trains just as hard as the kids who are a few years older and he has been a strong presence this season, running some great 400- and 800-metre races.”
After the Niagara United U12 soccer team player joined the relay, Thorold Elite ran into another problem when another runner had a baseball playoff game rescheduled for the same afternoon and had to pull out. The team subbed in jumper Mikhail Dwyer and planned to just run the race without any expectations.
Blake started the relay, passing the baton off to Sammy Tonnies, who gained the lead, and the remaining runners Dwyer and Matthew Kleinsmith maintained that lead.
“The boys all ran great but Evan was absolutely the MVP because if not for him we would have not been able to have the team in the first place,” Fife said. “It was also a great opportunity for him to run with the older boys and earn some respect from them as well as a gold medal, of course.”
Other medal winners from Niagara included: Niagara Olympic Club’s girls 4×800-metre relay, gold; Athletics Niagara’s John Campbell, silver in long jump; Niagara Olympic Club’s girls 4×400-metre relay, silver; Runner’s Edge Track Club’s 4×800-metre relay, silver; Niagara Olympic Club’s Sarah Lovegrove, bronze in high jump; Niagara Olympic Club’s Julia Tremeer, bronze in girls 1200 metres; and, Athletics Niagara’s Graham Walters, bronze in boys 300 metres.
More than 250 athletes took part in the Athletics Ontario meet, including 50 from Niagara clubs.
