It has been duly noted by many in our BC track circles the crazy length of this 2024 season. It’s a big ask to expect athletes to peak for the BC High School championships in June, for the Jamboree in July, and yet again for the Legion Nationals this past weekend in Calgary. Luckily, our approach of training hard but smart over this past month paid off with several personal bests and great efforts by our power and speed athletes.
Jesse Booth placed 6th overall in a pole vault competition, which saw the bar raised in substantial 20 centimetre increments. Jesse cleared 2.90 and had 3 good attempts at 3.10 (which would have been a personal best).
Thanks to personal bests in shot put, high jump, the 200 and javelin, and with solid performances in the hurdles, long jump and 800, Gurpartap Sandhu had a huge 300-point PB in the gruelling heptathlon, placing 9th in the country. But because the heptathlon wasn’t quite enough, and just for good measure, Gurpartap competed in the triple jump the day after her heptathlon, jumping a PB of 10.69, which placed her 12th.
Luke Wight contested the long jump, and despite falling backwards a bit with his elbow on the landing of his last jump, likely costing him 10-15 centimetres, it was still good enough for a PB of 6.32 meters, placing him 16th in the country.
Harveer Nigah, fighting several injures still managed an 8th place finish in the high jump.
In the 400meter hurdles, Will Van Schagen set a blistering pace in the first 200, allowing him to hang on for silver with a massive PB of 53.30, about 1.4 seconds faster than his previous best. Side note, Will’s time is 0.19 seconds faster than the current BC High School record.
Well done to all of our Legion athletes. – Coach Trevor
Luke WightJesse Booth
Will Van Schagen
Gurpartap SandhuHarveer Nigah
Distance Group
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our Valley Royals Athletes who competed at this past weekends Canadian Legion Championships in Calgary Alberta. For many of our athletes it was their first time competing at the national level and they all without exception should be proud of their efforts against the best competition our country has to offer. With regards to our distance athletes we represented both Valley Royals and Team BC with distinction.
Adrianna Buitelaar finished off an outstanding season by claiming her first Canadian Championship in the 3000m and taking the bronze medal in the 1500m.
In the Steeplechase Sam May ran an inspiring race to finish 4th and Miles Graham ran strongly to finish 7th in the country. Arata Nakanishi felt the fatigue from a long season and despite not being at his best still managed a 14th place finish. Will Van Schagen made a big breakthrough in the 400m hurdles with a silver medal performance and new PR of 53.30 which is faster than the current BC High school record and both coach Trevor and myself are very proud of his accomplishments. Riley Simmonds made a valiant effort in the 3000m but felt the effects of a long season and was far off his best but we will be looking forward to many great runs from this fine athlete in the future.
A big congratulations and thank you goes out to all the parents and board members for your support throughout what proved to be an outstanding season. Go Royals! – Coach Scott
