T-Birds Take Eaton Cup, Personal Bests

Yesterday saw a very successful day at the Harry Jerome Indoor 2015 for the Vancouver Thunderbirds. A highlight of the day was winning the Eaton Cup team trophy, we won by less than 20 points over Ocean Athletics so a huge thank you goes out to all the athletes who contributed to this great team success! 

Four Thunderbirds also won awards for the most outstanding performance in their age group; a big congratulations to Maya Baechler (Age 10 Girls), Jessica Kieffer (Age 11 Girls), Paul Fisher (Age 14-15 Boys) and Michael Aono (Age 16-17 Boys). Baechler ran 2.01.46 in the 600m and 34.62 in the 300m, Kieffer also had a busy day running in the 60m (9.77), the 200m (32.88), and the 600m in which she ran 2.04.65. Fisher ran in both the 300m and the 600m, running personal bests of 39.58 and 1.33.22 respectively, both of which were also meet records. Aono sprinted to first place in both the 60m and the 300m with personal best times of 7.01 for a meet record and 36.56, just 0.4 seconds off the meet record. Both these performances rank Aono number one in Canada for his age group! Great performances from all these young athletes!

We also saw success in the Open age group events with Heather Hamilton winning the women’s pole vault with a jump of 4.25, Amonn Nelson sprinting to a 7.65 victory, Kenneth Shultze with a personal best and winning time of 8.48 in the 60m hurdles, and Rohan Stewart breaking 7 seconds for the first time to come second in the 60m dash with 6.99.

Along with meet records, there were many club records and personal bests. In the Midget girls category Danielle Miller ran personal bests and club records in the 60m dash with 8.39 and the 60mHurdles with 10.02. Nataysia Mikula-Noble ran a PB in the 60m with 8.70.

For the Midget boys Brendan Schum ran a PB and club record in the 60m with 8.01, Luke Mantle ran PB and club record in the 60mHurdles in 10.32, ran a PB in the 1200m in 4:09.56 and threw a PB in the shotput of 6.56m. Also in this category we have Paul Fisher’s PBs, meet and club records in the 300m (39.58) and the 600m (1:33.22).

Youth girls saw Hayley Madden with a PB and club record in the 300m with 43.07, Kirstie Merkt-Caprile with PBs in the 60m (9.08) and the 60mHurdles (11.29), Selena Zhu Pb in 60mHurdles with 11.45 and PB and club record in the 60m with 8.44. Also, Gabriela Aquilini PB in high jump at 1.63m and a club record for the 4x200m relay of 1:56.54 (Hayley M, Selena Z, Grace, Kirstie).

In the Youth Boys section we had Michael Aono’s PBs in the 60m (7.01) and the 300m (35.56), with the meet record in the 60m. In the Open women category Emily Russell had a PB and club record in the 60m with 8.11, Michele Yee had a 60m PB with 8.42 and Chantel Van Hombeeck had a PB and club record with her 8.32 in the 60m. Stephanie Cho ran a PB and club record in the 60mHurdles with 9.51, Candace Yee ran a PB in the 300m in 47.29, as did Haley Grommerman in 48.83. Grommerman also threw a PB of 6.09 in the shotput.

In the open Men section Yuri Suzuki ran a PB in the 60m in 7.46 and Matthew Chan tied his PB and club record in 7.27. We saw PBs and club records from Kenenth Shultze in the 60mHurdles in 8.48, Ethan Strome in the 600m in 1:29.02 and the 4x200m relay with a time of 1:35.33 (Ethan, Matthew, Yuri, Michael Aono).

Congratulations to all who competed!