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B.C. track meet gets ready, set

The Nanaimo Track and Field Club is hosting the B.C. Junior Development Track and Field Championships at Rotary Bowl stadium.
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Nanaimo’s Keaton Heisterman runs at an event earlier this season at Rotary Bowl stadium.

The Nanaimo Track and Field Club will share their track and their field with the best from around the province.

The club is hosting the B.C. Junior Development Track and Field Championships at Rotary Bowl stadium starting Friday (July 12). The meet will attract the best athletes in the 9-13-year-old range.

“Come out to the track this weekend for a lot of fun and a glimpse of some future track and field stars,” said Terri Doughty, one of the club’s directors, in a press release.

Saturday’s action will be highlighted by the 200-metre race at 3 p.m. and the 4x100m relay at 3:30 p.m. Sunday’s main event is the 100m dash at 2 p.m. Field events will be scattered throughout the weekend.

The Nanaimo club will have several strong entries in the meet, including 13-year-old Madison Heisterman who is ranked first in the province over 800m and 1,200m. Eleven-year-old Keaton Heisterman is ranked first in discus and Ethan Katzberg, also 11, is ranked first in high jump and javelin.

Among the younger competitors, nine-year-old Jayden Watson has ruled his age class on the Island series, winning in just about every event possible.

The club is inviting any spectators to stop by Rotary Bowl, and is also hoping to hear from anyone who may be able to volunteer at the event. For more information, please e-mail nan.trackandfield@gmail.com.

Runners, jumpers, throwers in top form

It’s getting to be the time of the year for major meets, and Nanaimo Track and Field Club athletes seem to be in top form.

The club had a contingent at the Trevor Craven Memorial Track and Field Meet at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby this past weekend. Results include:

Masters men - Joe Giegerich, first, pole vault, first, triple jump.

16-17-year-old boys - Sean Miller, first, 1,500 metres; Andrew deGroot, first, 400m; Anthony Serban, second, 2000m steeplechase.

14-15-year-old boys - Jason Clare, first, pole vault, third, long jump, third, triple jump; Josh Bailey, second, 1,200m.

14-15-year-old girls - Amy Morris, first, 2,000m; Rachel Jerome, second, 100m, second, long jump, second, triple jump; Hailey Dickenson, third, 1,200m.

13-year-old girls - Marina Andersen, first, 1,500m race walk, second, pole vault, third, javelin; Hope Stewart, first, pole vault, second, 1,500m race walk.

12-year-old girls - Kaitlyn Watson, first, 300m, first, long jump, first, 800m race walk, third, hammer throw.

11-year-old boys - Ethan Andersen, first, javelin.

Nine-year-old boys - Jayden Watson, first, 60m dash, first, 600m, first, high jump.

Steeplechaser makes worlds

The Nanaimo Track and Field Club sent one of its stars to the world championships. Marita DeSchiffart was chosen by Athletics Canada to race the 2,000-metre steeplechase at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine, this week.

Nanaimo’s Thomas Oxland of the Oceanside track club is running the 800m at worlds.

Oxland, 16, qualified for the excellent adventure by running below the world standard for the 800-metre event of one minute, 55 seconds, when he ran a personal best 1:53.2 June 15 in a Q Series Meet in Victoria, which ranks him second in Canada for his age and earned him a spot on the team.

“That’s like an 11,” the teen answered when asked how it felt on a scale of one to 10, adding his main goal at the beginning of the year was to make the team, “so I was pretty happy.”

-with files from James Clarke