Valley Royals Track & Field Club

Jessica Smith and Helen Crofts have had a successful season competing in various meets around the world.  Smith is currently ranked 2nd in Canada at 800m (2:00.43)
a time she achieved by placing fifth in the final at the FISU Games held in Kazan, Russia.  Smith has one more chance to improve upon her rank as she will travel with the 61 member Canadian team to the Francophone Games being staged next week in Nice, France.

Crofts returned to action this year after missing most of the 2012 season due to injury and made the most of her recovery by establishing a personal best 2:01.35 established in the semi final round of the FISU Games.   It was a rewarding season for Crofts who last May completed her collegiate career with SFU by winning the 800 meters at the NCAA Division 2 Championships.

Alex Siemens had her debut run last Saturday as a member of the Idaho Vandals Cross Country team.  Siemens placed placed 23rd in a field of 106 runners and was the sixth finisher on the Idaho team.   Her time over the 4-k course was 15:11 an almost identical clocking of teammate Abby Larson who placed 24th.  Idaho sophomore Halie Raudenbush won the race in a time of 14:26.

Seventeen eager secondary school aged runners were on hand last Tuesday for the first cross country practice of the year.   Coach Sue Northey put the runners through a brisk workout in the warm afternoon sun and the coach was pleased with the enthusiasm of the team and their response to some demanding work.   The first major meet of the season for this group will take place on Saturday, October 5 when they travel to Yakima, Washington for the giant SunFair meet.  Other priority meets include the BC Athletics Championships at Clearbrook Park (October 25) and the BC High School Championships to be held at Aldergrove Park on November 2.

James Meehan conducted his first junior development practice of the season on Wednesday and 37 boys and girls were on hand.  The group had a warm up run, went through some drills and then did a variety of short runs.  Practices for this age group (9-15) take place at Clearbrook Park on Monday and Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. and Saturday at 10:00 a.m.  All practices take place at Clearbrook Park. 

The first test of the season for the JD group will be the Grand Prix series that kicks off on Wednesday, September 20.  Interested newcomers are welcome.

Kazan, Russia—July 9—In the 800m semi final of the FISU Games, Valley Royal athletes Jessica Smith placed 3^rd in her semi final heat (2:01.61) while teammate Helen Crofts came fifth in her section with an all time best of 2:01.35.   Those performances qualified both runners for yesterday’s final that saw Smith place 6^th with a seasonal best 2:00.43 and Crofts was 7^th (2:03.30).  The race was won by Maranta Mukasheva (KAZ) in 1:58.96.

Both Smith and Crofts will now embark on a European tour during which they will participate in a number of competitions.

White Rock—July 10–Oliver Jorgensen and Sarya Ross both recorded personal best  performances last evening at the Ocean Athletics All Comers meet held in White Rock.  Jorgensen sliced more then three seconds off his former best over the 800m distance finishing with a time of 1:58.25.  In the women’s 3,000 meters, Ross placed third in a time of 10:40.80:  a performance that met the standard for entry into the Canadian Legion Championships taking place next month in Langley.

In the women’s 100 meters Hailey Gibson placed third in her section of the 100 meters (12.98) while Katherine Crivello won her section with a 13.17 clocking.

Abbotsford, BC—Wednesday, July 3:  An outstanding performance by Jernail Hayes in the women’s 400-meter hurdles highlighted performances Wednesday evening at the Lafarge International Track Classic held at the Swan track in Abbotsford.

Hayes, who represents the United States, simply ran away from the field and turned in the excellent time of 56.67 to easily outpace Wendy Fawn of the US who placed second (59.71).

Kyle Clemons (USA) turned in a solid performance to win the men’s 400 meters in 46.51 with Quentin Summers (USA) second in 47.36. The tightest race of the evening was the men’s 800 meters that saw less then a half second separate the first three runners.  Luke Pawlacezyk (Brooks) had a good finishing kick to win the race in 1:48.43 with fellow American Duncan Phillips second (1:48.65) and Kenya’s Silas Kisorio third (1:48.86).

In the men’s 100 meters the runners had to battle a stiff head wind but the first three finishers all managed to run under 11 seconds.  The race was won by Reginald Dixon (USA) in a good 10.65 with countrymen Jerome Avery second (10.78) and Trice Lawrence third (10.97).  

Other solid performance saw Allison Beckford (USA) win the women’s 400-meters (54.25), Sirena Williams (USA) first in the women’s 100 meter hurdles (13.97) and
Amanda Mergaert (USA) won the women’s 800-meters (2:08.91).

The results can be seen on this page.  You can also view and download the results as a PDF through this link.

Mike Mason leaped 2.28 meters to place second in the high jump on Saturday at the  Canadian Senior Track and Field Championships held in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Canadian record holder Derek Drouin (ON) won the event with a clearance of 2:31
meters.  Valley Royal Django Lovett had a fourth place finish with a leap of 2.08 meters.

The Royals had two athletes compete in the women’s 800 meters with Jessica Smith placing fourth (2:03.96) and Helen Crofts came 6th (2:05.70).  The event was won by defending champion Melissa Bishop of Ontario in a time of 2:02.84.

Mason’s effort assured him of selection to the 32 member Canadian team that   
travel’s to Moscow, Russia in August for the World Championship of Athletics. Both Lovett and Smith will also travel to Russia this summer but in their case it will be to the city of Kazan for the Summer Universiade (FISU Games) that take place from July 7 – 12.