While summer has people thinking about beating the heat, Northeast Alberta Track and Field (NEAT) athletes pushed the heat up a few notches as they traveled to Regina, Sask. to compete against the top youth in the Tri-Prov Western Canadian Champions.
Sajan Pannu, Josh Foote, Christian Laramee, Courtney Hebert, Matthew Hawiuk, Parker Allen and Daniel Hebert were the seven NEAT athletes that qualified earlier in the season to join Team Alberta, along with 100 other athletes, to travel to the competition, commonly known as Westerns, from July 29 to 31.
“With the track club in town, it’s kind of a big deal to qualify for westerns or nationals,” said athlete Courtney Hebert. “Our coaches are always pushing us to get to the higher level meets to really excel.”
The track meets not only give them that chance to excel, but also an opportunity to travel and meet new people, she adds.
“It’s great to have that physical activity and be with your teammates.”
The seven local athletes put in their best efforts and brought home a total of 15 medals. In the midgets category of 14 and 15-year-olds, Daniel Hebert captured gold in 100 m. hurdles, bronze in long jump and triple jump, bronze in the 4 x 100 m and bronze in the medley relay; Parker Allen got a silver in discus and a bronze in hammer throw; and Sajan Pannu grabbed a bronze in discus and a silver in javelin, while also coming in fifth in shotput. Fellow midget competitor Josh Foote came in eight in the long jump and came just shy of medaling with a fourth place in javelin.
Among youth competitors aged 16 and 17, Matthew Hawiuk came out with a gold in the long jump and bronze in the 4 x 100 .m., Christian Laramee brought home two bronze medals for javelin and triple jump, while placing ninth in the long jump. For the youth girls, Courtney Hebert gained a bronze in long jump, a silver in the 4 x 100 metre, and came in fifth in the triple jump.
While the individual athletes shone, they also helped Team Alberta keep up its good track record and take home youth and midget trophies for total points by more than 100 points.
While most of the NEAT athletes are ready to hang up their shoes for this season – at least in terms of traveling to meets - Matthew Hawiuk kept on rolling with the competition, heading to Quebec to take part in nationals over the weekend. Hawiuk qualified for Nationals in an event in Calgary in July.
Going into his event, Hawiuk was seeded first in Western Canada and seventh in all of Canada for long jump.
Hawiuk kept rolling with his long jump distances at nationals, placing fifth with a jump of 6.57 meters. The jump was not a personal best for Hawiuk, but he was still pleased with the result.
“I wanted better but knowing that I gave it my all and represented my country the way I did, I couldn’t be happier. Throughout the season, I had my ups and downs, but I started off the season strong and kept improving from there.”
Hawiuk experienced a bad leg injury last season, sustained at the first meet of the year. It took him out of action for a large portion of the season, and he came into this year’s season mentally strong, training and trying to be his best.
“It was a setback to my track progress. Then at the beginning of this year, I was back at it and pulled a personal best at my first indoor meet.”
“Overall I’m proud of what I’ve done for this season, I’ve met new friends, been to new places and experienced competition with higher end athletes.”
Hawiuk is setting his sights on further improvement, saying, “For next season, my biggest goal is to train for the Canada Summer Games next year. Although I won’t be youth anymore, it’s something I’m striving for.”
Overall, NEAT founder and Coach Reg Green was happy with the way the season went and the effort put into track and field by the club’s athletes.
“We had some ups and some downs. Some of our athletes didn’t quite make it where they wanted to and some exceeded. We achieved what we expected to achieve. Pretty much all of our athletes that we expected to advance to more events made it. (Elk Point’s) Parker Allen only joined us in June and he made it to the Tri-province Westerns and that was great to see.”
Green says that the NEAT philosophy for success and improvement has contributed to athletes’ success.
“We get the athletes to set specific goals, to keep steadily improving every meet and every practice. For example, Matthew Hawiuk has been jumping between 6.5 and 6.94 meters in the long jump all year. For next year, he’s going to be training and aiming for seven meters. After all, these are just kids, they’re all good athletes with good potential and we want to see them do their best and make continuous improvement.”
Green added that “we want to work with them to help them achieve the goals they set for themselves.”
