Distance Group Excels at BC Endurance Challenge, in Victoria

Our Royals athletes represented us with distinction this past weekend at the BC Endurance Challenge in Victoria. Our 12 athletes, with the support of their families ,recorded many personal best performances and showed themselves to be a team to watch in the future. Riley Simmonds won both his U14 exhibition races at 800m and 1200m with personal bests. Andrew Thomson finished 3rd in the open 1500m and 8th in the 800m. Zoe Unger recorded huge personal bests to finish 4th in the U16 1200m and 7th in the 800m. Sam May showed himself to be one to watch in the future. He ran a personal best of 2:08.22 minutes in a nail biting race to finish 9th overall in the U16 800m, only 3.3 seconds behind the winner. This placed him as the third 14 year old in the province. His 1200m personal best of 3.29.56 minutes placed him 8th overall and second 14 year old in the province. Great running for this young man. Arata Nakanishi and Will Van Schagen both ran big PBs of 2:12.68 minutes and 2.16.41 minutes in the 800m to place as the fifth and sixth 14 year olds in BC. Arata also ran a PB of 3:33.88 minutes in the 1200m to rank as the fourth 14 year old. Halle May, Ally Hutchison, Arie Wassenaar, Tristian Steiger, and Sam Rasquinha, also ran strongly to record personal best or near personal best performances. Our trip proved to be very worthwhile, and a great time was had by all. A big congratulations goes out to all our U16 to Open athletes and their families for a great season. 

 

I would also like to take this moment to wish Andrew Thomson and Reid Johnston the very best on next season. Andrew has made huge gains as a Valley Royal over the past years, working with Trevor as a high school athlete and with myself in the Valley Royals Distance Group. In a relatively short amount of time, Andrew has progressed from virtually a non runner to one to watch in the provincial open category. In September it looks like he will be joining the SFU Clan and begin competing in the NCAA. He will train with SFU head coach and former Royals Athlete Brit Townsend, who is presently coaching our Olympic team in Japan. This looks like a great situation for Andrew to continue to advance in the sport, and we all wish him the very best. Reid will begin training with and competing for UBC in the BC Interior, and this will likewise be an excellent situation for him.