Stories from the indoor season 2015

Lots of good things have happened throughout the Winter Indoor season. Lets highlight the key performances from athletes young and old.

The 1500m has been a race that has gotten the best out of our racers this season. In our youth squad Dominic Temple, Fiona Pavlovska, and Charlie Mills have all won medals and set fast personal best times, and sometimes more then once. At the first meet Charlie Mills finished in a near tie for first, but was awarded Silver. However his time of 5:35.52 was a 15 second improvement from the year before. A few weeks later at the Flying Angels meet he stepped into another 1500m and ran to an even better best. His time of 5:28.77 was good enough to win the race, and set a meet record! He added another Gold medal later in the season, and will be looking for success in the 1200m at the Provincial Championships on March 21st and 22nd.

Dominic Temple has set his sights on fast times, and has plans to get there. As a relative newcomer, Dominic has thrown himself into many races, and has been poised and patient as other runners run off pace. In the 1500m he began his season with a win in 5:50.11. Knowing he had more to give, he did, and at the next meet he shaved his time down to 5:39.46 for 6th place. Wanting more from himself he focused on completing tough workouts, and came back at the next meet wanting an even faster times. What he got was a 5:33.94! He would add a bronze medal at a later race in which he ran 5:37.08.
Fiona Pavlovska only has one attempt at the distance. Not knowing what to expect, she ran in second and third place for the first 5 of the 7 and a half 200m laps. And what followed in the final lap was an unbelievable reserve of energy. She sprinted as if she was only warming up for a 200m race all this time. From being side by side with the leader, Fiona found herself with a winning margin of almost 100m. Fiona and Dominic will be looking to have success at the Provincial Championships in the 1500m.

Also contested by our youth was the 800m, 400m, 200m and the 60m. Charlie Mills, Charlie Pilz, and Dominic Temple have raced the 800m well this season. Mills and Pilz have swapped wins in the tyke category and Temple has placed well. The 400m has been highlighted by the most recent improvement in Charlie Pilz's time. At seasons open, Charlie was running a 1:19.28 and was in the thick of competition. However, in the last few races he has been exerting his dominance on the distance, and has lowered his time to 1:13.37. He has established himself as a contender for the tyke provincial crown in that distance. Sebastian McIsaac was also able to medal in 400m races this season. Pilz has medaled in 200m races this season as well. The 60m saw the debut races for Frances Fiorino and Charlotte Melnyk, both girls managed their nerves well, and had explosive starts. We look forward to more races from the pair.

On the Masters side of racing. The 1500m and the 800m were favourites. Tanya Sakharov, Mark Duff, Glenn Duncan and Jimmy Semes all found there way to Masters Mini Meets and have already taken there shot at Provincial glory. Tanya went Gold x2 with W30 wins in both events (5:17.71; 2:33.45). In M35 action Jimmy took Gold in the 1550m and Silver in the 800m despite illness and injury that almost saw him forfeit (4:35.73; 2:13.69). M40 Glenn captured Bronze in the 1500m (5:04.72). Mark was 5th in the 800m and 4th in the 1500m (2:36.69; 5:10.16).
Also getting into races were Bill Bentley and Joanna Kotsopoulos. Both of them preferred to attack the longer 3000m race. After 15 laps of racing Bill managed to come away with a victory in the M30 category in a time of 10:15.12, and Joanna was the W45 silver medalist in 13:13.92, which also happened to be her first indoor race.

The next report will cover the Canadian Masters Championship on March 14-15. And the MTA Provincial Final on March 21-22.