The Western Hub has headed East, at least for the weekend.
Athletics Canada operates two national training hubs, at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence in Saanich for middle-distance track, and in Toronto for the sprinters.
Many athletes are in Montreal this weekend for the national track and field championships, from which the team to the IAAF world championships this fall in Doha, Qatar, is being selected. The team for the 2019 Lima Pan Am Games — including high-jumper and three-time Olympian Michael Mason of Nanoose Bay and Prairie Inn Harriers 10,000-metre runner Natasha Wodak — was pre-selected because the Games are currently on and those athletes will depart for Peru immediately following the nationals.
Not joining his Western Hub training mates from PISE at nationals is Rob Denault, still nursing a fractured foot from jumping into the water pit during the steeplechase in a May meet in Nanaimo. The former NCAA 1,500-metre finalist for the Villanova Wildcats has targeted the 8K race of the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon weekend in October for his return to racing, and he hasn’t lost sight of the big goal for this quadrennial.
“Our goal is to keep growing the Western Hub and getting people on the senior national team. We are targeting the Tokyo 2020 Olympic team. That’s why we are here,” said Denault.
Middle-distance runners from the Western Hub at the Olympic trials in Montreal include Mariah Kelly, Sarah MacPherson, Adrea Propp and Laurence Cote. Olympians such as Melissa Bishop, Matt Hughes and Erin Teschuk regularly use the Western Hub on a drop-in basis as needed in their training.
Denault has taken on an added role with the Western Hub as an athlete ambassador in terms of community outreach. “I’m an athlete, but I’m also wearing a couple of different hats,” he said.
“We want more community engagement with the Hub, and to raise awareness about running and physical fitness, and will be conducting youth clinics and will be at elementary and middle-school practices. There is a legacy element to this.”
The funding comes from 94 Forward, which administers the nearly $20-million legacy fund from the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games. The 94 Forward board decided it’s better to concentrate its resources and go deeper on a few sports, rather than going wider and shallower in its support. It has focused on the Athletics Canada middle-distance Western Hub, the Victoria-based Triathlon Canada national training centre and, lately, the Canadian women’s field-hockey team’s largely self-funded bid to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“I came to the Western Hub in 2016 to train for the full Olympic cycle to Tokyo 2020,” said Denault, a native of Aurora, Ont. “This has allowed me to chase the dream. There are not many opportunities to immerse yourself like this and I’m grateful for it.”
Denault is doing even more now with funding to inspire the next generation of young runners from the Island. “Our training Hub is collaborating with 94 Forward to help drive our performances to a world class level, but to also increase the development of youth and active-for-life members within our community,” he said.
With the demise of the annual Victoria Track and Field Classic, which, for nearly 30 years, brought an Olympic-class meet to Centennial Stadium, the Hub last week hosted the inaugural Coffee Cup Track Classic at Centennial Stadium. The purpose was to allow Island track athletes to have quality racing before the national championships, while also providing a community element.
“We were able achieve this by hosting a two-day competition with no formal fee except for a donation of a coffee cup,” Denault said.
“We provided capable pace setters for the top sections, and integrated a corporate relay and kids’ clinic and relay before the high performance races.
“This resulted in multiple personal bests by Island athletes. Two organizations competed in the corporate relay and 36 kids attended the clinic and got excited about high-performance athletics in their own community.”
