Athletics: Weekend round up in Canadian track and field: Reed’s Canadian record headlines big week for Pacific Sport Team Victoria

February 16, 2004 OTTAWA - Gary Reed broke a Canadian record and Heather Hennigar and Aimee Teteris qualified for next month’s world indoor championships this past weekend in a great showing for Pacific Sport Team Victoria members at the Razorback-Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Reed clocked a Canadian record 1:46.47 for fourth place in the men’s 800-metre. That smashed the previous indoor mark of 1:47.79 set by Nathan Brannen of Cambridge, Ont., set last year in the same city. Reed hopes to make a major impact the world indoors set for March 5-7 in Budapest.

At the same meet, Hennigar and Teteris qualified for the world indoors placing fourth and fifth respectively in the women’s 800-metre clocking 2:02.61 and 2:03.18.

The trio is coached in Victoria by Wynn Gmitroski who is also managing the Olympic preparations for 800-metre specialists Diane Cummins and marathon man Bruce Deacon

At the same meet, in the women’s 60 hurdles, world 100-metre hurdles outdoor champion Perdita Felicien of Pickering, Ont., finished second for a second straight week of American Gail Devers clocking 7.94 seconds.

Veteran Kevin Sullivan of Brantford, Ont., also Budapest-bound, was third in the mile clocking an excellent 3:56.57.

At the Valentine Invitational in Boston, Sarah Dupre-Healy of Kingston, Ont., posted a personal best indoor time of 15:57.90 in the women’s 5,000 for the gold medal.

At the Clemson Invitational in North Carolina, Charles Allen of Brampton, Ont., achieved the world indoor qualifying standard clocking 7.69 seconds in the 60-metre hurdles for the gold medal. The standard was 7.70.

Sophomore Priscilla Lopes of Whitby, Ont., broke the University of Nebraska school record in the 60-meter hurdles for the third time in four races, clocking 8.13 just 0.03 off the world championship standard. In back-to-back events, Lopes also won the women’s 60-meter dash with her NCAA provisional-qualifying mark of 7.36. She has now qualified for NCAA Indoor Championships in the 60-metre hurdles, 60-metre sprint and the 200 metres.

At the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup in Philadelphia, Megan Metcalfe of Edmonton and Hilary Edmondson of Sarnia, Ont., were 1-2 in the women’s mile clocking 4:35.89 and 4:36.12.

At the Findlay Open in Ohio, Derek Woodske of Kamloops, B.C., won the gold medal in the weight throw with a 23.08 metre toss.

At the Huskies Invitational at the University of Washington, Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops, posted a personal best in the men’s shot put at 18.56 metres for the bronze medal. Silver medal performances were also posted by Katie Vermeulen of Victoria in the women’s mile and Zach Whitmarsh of Victoria in the men’s 800.

In cross country running , at the UBC Open Cross Country Classic, Émilie Mondor of Mascouche, Que., clocked a course record 12 minutes and 48 seconds for her second victory this season. She’ll likely race both the short and long course races at the cross country worlds at the end of March in Belgium. Malindi Elmore of Kelowna, B.C., also on the world team, was second.

Matt Johnston of Burnaby, B.C., won the men’s six kilometer race in 18:55.

At the Euro-Cross Series in Luxembourg, Joel Bourgeois of Montreal finished seventh against many of his potential top opponents at the cross country worlds clocking a solid 31:09 in the 10.2 kilometre race.

There were two strong showings by athletes with a disability at the Jones-Konihowski High Performance Invitational at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Kris Vriend of Edmonton won the women’s shotput at 8.22 metres which was better than the outdoor world record; and Robert Hughes of Brampton, Ont., was fourth in a men’s shotput at 7.79 metres a new Canadian record for cerebral palsy athletes.

From AthleticsCanada.com.