News

JD's excel in Maple Ridge

2013-05-16T04:16:46Z

Nineteen JD's travelled to Maple Ridge for the Golden Ears Track Meet and came home with six gold, sixteen silver and eight bronze trophies. Our high jumpers dominated; Luka Polijak, Xavier Kristen, Finley Butler, Hella- Marie Dolman, Sean Richardson and Dehlia Warrignton all coming away with first or second places. Sofia Warrignton claimed first place in javelin and Jonah Glover-Cook ran excellent races in both the 800 and 1200m; the later a first place finish. Jack McColl picked up two second place finishes in the 80m Hurdles and 1200m and Shaunika Suriya took home a host of medals in the 60m hurdles, 200m, long jump and shot put as did Dehlia Warrington in the 60m, 1000m, long jump and previously mentioned high jump. Finley Butler also scored second places in the 60m hurdles and Shot Put and Hella Marie Dolman added to her high jump mark with first in the 60m and second long jump. In the final event of the day, both the 2000 and 2003 girls ran strongly to take second places in the 4*100 relay. Congratulations to everyone!

Nizamani Breaks out at Western Washington Open, Thunderbirds Compete at Stanford, Bear Creek Park & UBC

2013-05-01T22:31:40Z

Ahmad Nizamani opened his outdoor season with a personal best in the Long Jump at the Western Washington Open on Friday evening in Bellingham. His 5th round jump of 6.71m was a personal best and secured 2nd place overall. A great result for a high school junior competing against University athletes.

Leading the middle distance charge in Bellingham was Alex Kilpatrick, who finished 4th in the A section with a time of 1:56.18. Alex was closely followed by Jordan Maynard in a time of 1:56.79. Max Trummer ran a personal best time of 1:57.53 to place 2nd in the B section. Rounding out the Thunderbirds 800m crew was Kapil Anand who ran 2:06.93.

In the sprints, Amabel Stokes ran a seasonal best of 57.11 in the 400m and came back an hour later to win the 200m in 25.80. Sajeda Win competed in the 100m running 12.80 and came back with a great effort in the 200m as well.

Closer to home, rainy conditions and the cool weather didn't deter the Thunderbird high jumpers at Saturday's Fraser Valley High School meeting hosted by South Fraser Track Club at the Bear Creek Park track in Surrey.

Continuing his winning outdoor winning streak by winning the high school boys' event at 1m90, Youle Chen attempted a new PB height of 1m96, just missing on his final attempt.

Sophie Pauls showed excellent early season form in the wet conditions to win the high school girls event with a winning height of 1m50. Gabriela Aquilini debuted her new longer approach and finished 4th at 1m45, and demonstrated that she will be a force to be reckoned with in the very near future.

Rounding out the weekend results, on Sunday, Erica Digby and Rachel Cliff competed in the prestigious Payton Jordan Invitational meet at Stanford University. Erica contested the 1500m and placed third in her section with a personal best time of 4:19.78. Now that she has broken 4:20 the next target is the FISU standard of 4:18.00. Rachel Cliff contested the 5000m with the hopes of breaking 16:00 for the first time. She was on pace through 4000m but was not able to hold the pace to the finish. Her final time of 16:12.01 is close to her personal best. She will continue to work hard and has demonstrated that she is capable of running significant personal bests in the near future.

A total of thirty- three JD athletes from Thunderbirds participated at the UBC Track meet. Using any measurement of success the Thunderbirds performed wonderfully. The team came away with five gold, eight silver and seven bronze individual medals and one gold, a silver and three bronze team medals. TBirds showed strongly in all areas, sprints, hurdles, field and distance. Especially enjoyable was watching the relay teams perform and the close races for the grade 7 girls in the 4*100 and Medley events. Performance wise every one participated with focus and energy and most importantly everyone had a fun weekend. As a team we earned enough points to be the top club at the meet. Well done!

Congratulations to all!

Thunderbirds invade Oregon and California

2013-04-22T23:42:21Z

Thunderbird athletes were in action at the Mt. Sac Relays and Oregon Relays over the weekend. Erica Digby contested the 1500m at Mt. Sac and finished with a time of 4:23.61. Rachel Cliff clocked a time of 16:07.89 in the Mt. Sac 5000m. Both Erica and Rachel will be competing at the Payton Jordan meet at Stanford University this weekend. They are looking to better the FISU qualifying marks of 4:18.00 and 16:00.00. At the Oregon Relays in Eugene, the Thunderbirds were led by Matthew So's 3rd place finish in the 800m. His time of 1:54.87 was just off his personal best and shows that he is ready for an excellent high school season. Sophie Dodd finished an impressive 7th in the 800m with a time of 2:17.20. Sophie and Matthew will both be racing at the Ken Shannon Invitational at the University of Washington on May 4th and will be looking to better their personal best times of 1:54.47 and 2:17.00. Other Thunderbirds in action in Oregon were Audrey Warner and Tessa Ladner. Both Audrey and Tessa ran personal best times in the 1500m (4:52.21 and 5:01.69). Congratulations to all of our athletes that competed in Oregon and California...well done!

Thunderbirds Take Emilie Mondor Meet by Storm

2013-04-17T03:18:28Z

A large number of Thunderbird athletes opened the 2013 outdoor season this past Saturday at the Emilie Mondor Meet at SFU. There were some encouraging performances for so early in the year.

Ethan Strome opened his 400m Hurdles season with a scorching 56.90 clocking, a huge personal best. Natalie Cryderman, Emily Russell, Michelle Yee and Sajeda Win opened the season with strong 200m performances. Matthew Chan, Chantel Van Hombeeck and Win also ran exceptional times in the 100m as well, Van Hombeeck with a massive personal best! Amabel Stokes and Sean Szeremeta ran excellent opening races at 400m.

Twelfth Grader Youle Chen won the Men’s HJ by clearing 1.90m, besting the University jumpers from UBC and SFU. He was a whisker away from making 1.95m, which would have equalled his outdoor personal best.

Ninth Grader Gabriela Aquilini finished second in the Women’s HJ by clearing 1.50m in her first outdoor meet of the season, the same height cleared by the winning jumper from UBC. She too was a whisker away from clearing 1.55m, which would have been a new personal best for this talented young athlete. Emily Huser, competing for UBC, cleared 1.45m to finish in 4^th place. Emily also placed 3^rd in Triple Jump with a jump of 10.31m.

Ahmad Nizamani competed in the Long Jump with a leap of 6.21m. Sophie Pauls taking part in her first meet of the season kept busy Long Jumping, Throwing the Shot and running the 4 x 400m. Emily Lim took part in the Shot Put and Javelin. Ness Murby competing in her first track meet since 2010 threw a new personal best in the Shot Put with a throw of 7.88m. Ness is a visually impaired athlete.

Next up for the Thunderbirds on April 26th/27th is the VOC Elementary Meet at UBC for the JD's and the South Fraser Invitational at Bear Creek Park for the High School athletes.

Thunderbirds Excel at World Cross-Country Championships

2013-04-03T04:21:33Z

Christian Gravel and Rachel Cliff, both Vancouver Thunderbird athletes, competed for Canada at the 2013 World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland on March 24th. Christian and Rachel qualified for the World's with impressive performances at the Canadian Cross Country Championships held at Jericho Beach on November 24th. As part of their National team commitment and their preparation for World's, they competed at the NACAC Cross Country Championships in Mandeville, Jamaica on January 26th.

The team traveled to Poland a week in advance for a training camp in Walcz. This allowed them to adapt to the time change and to get use to the unseasonably cold and snowy conditions in Poland. Both Christian and Rachel had great camps and were ready for a peak performance at World's. During the camp, the team prepared a "Harlem Shake" video that has received a great deal of attention on the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnJGmrBGRjQ&feature=youtu.be

Christian competed in the junior men's race and finished an impressive 57th place. His goal was to finish in the top 60 and to gain valuable international experience. Mission accomplished on both fronts! Christian will now turn his attention to the outdoor track and field season where he will attempt to qualify for the Pan American Junior Championships in Lima, Peru.

Rachel went into the race optimistic that a top 50 placing was a definite possibility. Her training had gone well and she raced well at NACAC and set personal best marks over 3000m and 5000m during the indoor season. Much like Christian, she was also looking to gain valuable international experience. Rachel ran an incredible race finishing in 25th position. In the process, she beat many seasoned international caliber distance runners that competed at the London Olympics. This will set her up well for some great races during the upcoming outdoor track season. She is planning on racing at the Mt. Sac Relays and the Payton Jordan Invitational with the hopes of hitting the qualifying mark for the World University Games (FISU) in Kazan, Russia.

Congratulations to both Christian and Rachel; you have made all of us at Thunderbird's very proud!

Results:

http://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-cross-country-championships/40th-iaaf-world-cross-country-championships-2-5096/timetable/byday

Footage from Christian's race:

http://www.trackie.com/track-and-field/TrackieTV/2013-world-xc-junior-mens-8km/2535/

Amabel headed to Stanford

2013-03-14T03:25:07Z

Thunderbird Athletes Impress at UW Final Qualifier

2013-03-04T05:20:55Z

On Friday, March 1st, four Thunderbird athletes traveled to Seattle to compete at the UW Final Qualifier at the University of Washington. First up from the Thunderbird crew was Erica Digby. She kick started the day with a personal best performance of 4:44.87 in the women's mile. Up next was Matthew So. He ran aggressively in the men's 800m recording a personal best of 1:54.47. Jordan Maynard contested the 3000m and came home with a time of 8:54.15. Last up was Rachel Cliff in the women's 5000m. This was her first attempt at a 5000m indoors and was her final tune-up for the World Cross Country Championships in Poland. She ran a strong race and bettered her outdoor personal best with a time of 16:06.41. All in all, a great day for the Thunderbirds!

http://www.gohuskies.com/sports/c-track/stats/2012-2013/2013finalqualheats.html

Longest Day Road Race

2013-03-02T05:18:36Z

Registration for the North Shore Credit Union Longest Day Road Race

and

the Subway Commit to Fit Kid'Smile is now open

Information and online registrion is HERE