Niagara Olympic Club concludes mini meet schedule (results included)

The Niagara Olympic Club’s series of three track and field meets reached their successful conclusion last Saturday at the club’s St. Catharines facility.

‘We were happy and it went very, very well,” NOC president Sharon Stewart said. “We received lots of positive feedback from the athletes for giving them the opportunity to compete.”

The COVID-19 protocols didn’t have much of an effect on the jumps and throws but the runners were hurt by the restrictions that only allowed a runner on every second lane on the eight-lane course.

“The athletes still felt it was valuable to test themselves against the clock on the track even if it wasn’t normal racing conditions and highly competitive,” Stewart said. “They still had some measurement of their progress and how they are doing, and it was a reward for the training they have been doing along the way.

“I told the kids that it was weird but weird is better than nothing.”

Next up for the club is hosting the Athletics Ontario cross country championships Nov. 14 and 15 at Firemen’s Park in Niagara Falls. The club is still waiting final approval to host the event.

Stewart isn’t sure how many athletes would compete in the event, but Athletics Ontario is surveying the clubs to come up with a ballpark number.

“From there, we will see if it is manageable over two days or if we need to add a third day because we are limited as to how many we can put in each race and we have to have time between races to shuffle people in and out.”

Stewart believes the maximum number allowed in each race is 100, but the club would cap that at 80 because there are also course marshals that count towards the overall number.

The runners in each race would be send out in waves made up of teams.

“A team of six would go and a minute later another team of six would go,” she said. “If you have 10 waves or so, that adds about 10 minutes to the race time.”

Ages for the championships are from 14 to masters runners.

Following are top five local results from Niagara athletes competing at the third Mini Meet held Saturday at the Niagara Olympic Club:

Men’s 3000 metres: 1. Sacha Schimmelpenninck, Runner’s Edge (8:59.3).

Men’s 2000 metres: 2. Fenway Breckels, Thorold Elite.

Women’s 100 metres: 4. Kennedy Hall, Athletics Niagara; 5. Rosie Radford, Niagara Olympic Club.

Men’s 100 metres: 2. Denis Tzvetkov, Thorold Elite; 4. Nicholas Longo, Thorold Elite; 5. Jason Friesen, Niagara Olympic Club.

Women’s 300 metres: 3. Lauren Thomas, Niagara Olympic Club.

Men’s 300 metres: 2. Yousuf Huq, Thorold Elite; 3. Evan Blake, Thorold Elite; 4. Kennedy Brodeur, Thorold Elite.

Women’s 400 metres: 1. Isabella Goveia, Niagara Olympic Club (1:00.1); 3. Jaden Delima, Niagara Olympic Club.

Men’s 400 metres: 1. Isaak Siemens, Niagara Olympic Club (51.9); 4. Zavio Prato, Niagara Olympic Club.

Women’s 800 metres: 2. Kristina Etezadi, Athletics Niagara.

Men’s 800 metres: 1. Eric Campbell, Niagara Olympic Club (1:56.02); 4. Gavin Stone, Thorold Elite; 5. Connor Pelletier, Thorold Elite.

Women’s javelin: 4. Isabella Brenzil, Athletics Niagara; 5. Olivia Davidson, Niagara Olympic Club.

Men’s high jump: 1. Nathan Kowcun, Thorold Elite (1.88 m); 2. Cameron Greene, Niagara Olympic Club; 4. Michael Ivanov, Niagara Olympic Club.

Women’s high jump: 3. Gwen Cudmore, Niagara Olympic Club; 4. Ashtynn Caldwell, Niagara Olympic Club; 5. Sarah Lovegrove, Niagara Olympic Club.

Men’s discus: 2. Caleb Grover, Thorold Elite; 3. Thomas Dallman, Thorold Elite; 4. Daniel Swayze, Thorold Elite.

Women’s discus: 1. Trinity Tutti, SISU Throws Club (56.23 m).

Men’s javelin: 3. Tristan McDougall, Niagara Olympic Club.

Men’s shot put: 1. Denis Tzvetkov, Thorold Elite (12. 9 m); 2. Ravi Hollo, Niagara Olympic Club; 5. Caleb Grover, Thorold Elite.

Men’s hammer: 5. Caleb Grover, Thorold Elite.

Women’s hammer: 4. Sophia Saldutto, York University Track and Field.

BPSN’s coverage of track and field is made possible with the support of the Niagara Olympic Club (https://nocrunners.com).