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Bear Mountain ready for Pan Am cross-country races

Bruce Deacon, general manager of the 2020 Pan American cross-country championships taking place Saturday, said he had to “pinch himself” when the Brazilian team became the first to arrive Thursday on Bear Mountain.

Bruce Deacon, general manager of the 2020 Pan American cross-country championships taking place Saturday, said he had to “pinch himself” when the Brazilian team became the first to arrive Thursday on Bear Mountain. They were soon followed by the Mexicans, Colombians and Costa Ricans.

“In two years of preparation, you get so buried in the details, that it kind of sneaks up on you. But you can really start feeling the buzz now,” he said.

Not that any outdoor sporting event in Canada in winter doesn’t have its hitches. The only places to host the Pan Ams in Canada in February are the Island or Lower Mainland. The worst it will get this weekend on the Bear is wet.

“But snow in Toronto [Pearson Airport] affected air travel and delayed several of the teams getting here,” said Deacon.

However, what is Canada without a winter weather story, he said.

The calibre of racing Saturday will be outstanding.

“Several of the runners here for the Pan Am cross-country championships will be competing for their nations this summer at the Tokyo Olympics in events such as the steeplechase and 10,000 metres,” said Deacon, a two-time Olympian in the marathon.

They can expect a challenging route Saturday over Bear Mountain’s Valley golf course. It is a two-kilometre loop and the elite hemispheric men and women will traverse it five times in the 10K championship races. The start and finish line will be at the driving range.

“It’s a tough course that will take you out of your rhythm, with a hard hill the [elite] runners will have to attack five times,” noted Deacon.

“This course will really take it out of your legs.”

The 10K women’s elite championship race begins at noon and the men’s at 12:45 p.m. There are several other races, as well, beginning with the 5K community run at 9 a.m., 6K women’s and 8K men’s U-20 Pan Am championship races at 10 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., respectively, 1.6K Nations Cup team race at 11:30 a.m., 5K Pacific Northwest youth championship at 1:40 p.m. and 5K Can-Am Masters Challenge at 2:15 p.m.

Admission is free and fans are advised to park on the outer gravel lots.

“There is no charge. Just come out and bring your cowbells, and spoons and pots and pans to bang on, to make noise to cheer on the runners,” said Deacon.

Hosting the top harriers in the hemisphere continues unabated the Island’s recent run of international sporting events which began with the 2019 IIHF world junior hockey championship and continued this month with the Canada-U.S. Rivalry series women’s hockey game at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. It rolls on with the Pan Am cross-country championships this weekend on the Bear, Canada-Trinidad 2022 World Cup qualifying men’s soccer match March 27 and Canada Sevens women’s rugby tournament May 2-3, both at Westhills Stadium, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics men’s FIBA basketball qualifying tournament June 23-28 at the Memorial Centre.

There is a longer Island play in mind for cross-country, too. The local organizing committee wants to put on a good show this weekend at Bear Mountain with the ultimate goal of hosting the 2023 IAAF world cross-country championships.

“The worlds are a much more expensive proposition,” Deacon said.

“We have to prove we can host successfully at the Pan American level and then our community next has to show it wants the worlds to be held here.”

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com

Twitter.com/tc_vicsports