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Two national golds for local clubs

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Thorold Elite Track Club member T.J. Woods’ 15th birthday was even more memorable last weekend at the Canada Cross Country National Championships held at the Fanshawe Golf Club in London.

Woods led Thorold Elite’s under-16 boys team to a gold medal in the four-kilometre race with a fifth-place finish. Other participating members of the team were Lucas Sacco, Deagen Hallett, Rocco Shuker, Levi Sampaio, Samuel Garbes, Evan Blake, Jake Filipe and Justin Martens.

Woods also earned a gold medal with Team Ontario as one of the top four scorers from Ontario.

“I am really proud of the boys for seeing this goal fulfilled. It really was a team effort. We had some circumstances in the last two weeks like lung infections and hockey injuries. One of the boys got stepped on at the beginning of the race and lost his shoe and ran the entire race with only one spike, but if someone was less then 100 per cent then someone else made up for it by having an even better race,” Thorold Elite coach Steven Fife said. “They did what they needed to do. Every one of the top four boys passed someone at the end when every place counted and that helped them to win.”

Fife is looking forward to what lies ahead for the club in cross country.

“We are really excited about the group of boys that we have. U10, U12, U14 and U16 boys were all provincial medalists so as they move up in age category next year and many of these boys who won nationals become U18, we are going to continue to build really strong teams for the next few years to come.”

Nearly 50 athletes from across Niagara raced with the nation’s best, including the EDGE Sport under-18 boys team, which also won team gold. Members of the team were Graham Tomori, Brody Clark, Nolan McGregor, Oliver Crowe, Jackson Sider, Jackson McIntosh and Logan Macrae.

Nationals concludes the fall cross county racing season and Niagara’s track clubs will now transition indoors for the winter to prepare for the indoor track season, which includes championships from January to April.

Edge Sports under-18 national champs.
Thorold Elite’s TJ Woods

Bernie Puchalski, a graduate of Brock University and Niagara College, worked in journalism in Niagara for more than 27 years before taking a voluntary buyout from The Standard at the end of 2016. He started his career as a news reporter for the Niagara Falls Review before switching to sports reporting. He was a sports reporter and sports editor at the Niagara Falls Review before joining the Standard's sports department in 1996. He was named the Standard's sports editor in 2000 and became the regional sports editor, in charge of the Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune and Standard, in 2015, a position he held until he left the company. During his time in newspapers, he was a multiple winner and finalist for numerous Ontario and Western Ontario Newspaper Awards for sports reporting, spot news reporting and humour writing. He was a member of the Standard Boys Basketball Tournament committee and co-chair of the Standard Girls Basketball Tournament, helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for bursaries presented to participants in the tournament. He also served on countless local sports committees both in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines.

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