RESULTS for the 2012 Valley Royals Invitational are now available at this link. Congratulations to all participants and we will hopefully see all of you next year.

The 2012 Lafarge Abbotsford International Track Classic
The Meet Information and Entry Package for the June 6th Lafarge Abbotsford International Track Classic can be found at the website, international.valleyroyals.org

High school track overcame the teacher’s labor dispute with the BC Government on Tuesday to stage the first of a two day Fraser Valley Championship at Langley.

A huge contingent of athletes turned out for the meet that featured events in a grade 8/9 division used as a selection vehicle for the Zone 3 team that will take part in the BC Games, and a grade 10 to 12 division to select athletes to participate in the BC High School Championships. In both segments of the competition Valley Royal athletes had some good performances.

Grade 8, 9 BC Games Selection Meet:
Spencer Spenst led the way in this competition and won both the high jump (1.70m) and pole vault (3.20m). As a two-event winner, Spencer virtually assured himself of selection to the Zone 3 team that will compete in Surrey. Aidan Bingert and Callum Pilgrim had third place finishes in the female and male 1200-meter events respectively. Bingert completed the distance with a time of 3:28.35 while Callum had a clocking of 3:40.06 in the girls’ race. Jennifer Kell won the second section of the 1200 meters posting a time of 3:54.92.

Senior Fraser Valley Championship:
Darkness closed in on this section of the meet and that meant that Hailey Gibson, who won her heat of the 100-meters in a personal best 12.21, will have to wait until tomorrow evening to run the final. Francesca Jackman ran a personal best 67.78 to place second in the 400-meter hurdles and assured herself of a spot at the provincial meet. There were several other Royals that had top three performances that included Alex Siemens in the 1500-meters (4:43.48), Chantel Desch in the 400 meters (58.13) and Catherine Taekema in the pole vault (2.40m). Oliver Jorgensen rose from his sick bed and placed third in the boys’ 2,000m SC (6:37) and seventh in the 1500 meters (4:19).

Other qualifiers for the provincial championships included:
Sarya Ross—6th in the girls 1500 meters (5:00)
Janelle Hay—7th in the girls 1500 meters (5:03)
Lorenzo Smith—8th in the boys 1500 meters (4:19)
Kayla Lennea—7th in the girls 400 meters (1:00.07)

Just over a week ago coach Harold Willers was driving his wife from the ferry terminal after her return from a trip to the Island. Enroute home to Chilliwack they stopped for a meal and that’s when it happened: Harold felt extreme pain and his wife had to rush him to the hospital where diagnosis determined he was suffering from an attack of acute pancreatitis that, in Harold’s words, “is a very painful problem.” After approximately a week in hospital Harold was released and is now resting comfortably at home under the watchful eyes of his good wife.

Have a quick recovery please Harold, as we want to see you back doing your thing with the throwers.

Valley Royal athlete Jessica Smith came within one tenth of a second from her personal best in placing third in the Ponce Grand Prix held Saturday in Puerto Rico. Maggie Vessey won the race (2:00.78) in a close finish with Ottawa’s Melissa Bishop who came second (2:00.19). Smith took third place with a season best 2:01.55, just 1/10th of a second off her all time personal best.

This coming weekend Smith will get another chance to achieve the Olympic B standard of 2:01.30 seconds when she travels to Los Angeles and the following week she will be in St. Louis, Missouri for another international meet.

Approximately a dozen Valley Royal athletes traveled to Maple Ridge on Saturday to take part in the Golden Ears meet.

Gabrielle MacGregor led the way for the Royals by winning three medals in the 13-year old girl’s division. MacGregor came first in the shot put (9.04m) and had bronze medals in both the 80-meter hurdles (14.18) and the 800m (2:33.46). MacGregor completed her busy day with a fourth place finish in the 60 meters.

Lockhart MacGregor, Gabrielle’s eight-year old brother, got his competitive track and field career underway by placing second in both the 600 and 1,000m runs. The 600m had an exciting finish as Lockhart battled it out with Xavier Kristen (St. Georges) with the Vancouver athlete winning in a time of 2:03.47 to Lockhart’s 2:03.87.

Josephine Calverley (12-years old) had second place finishes in the 800m (2:39) and 1200 meters. Other second places were posted by Rachel Choboter in the pole vault (2.00m) and Joel Choboter in the 13-year old shot put (9.13m).

Jensen Bako was third in the 13-year old boy’s high jump (1.30m) while McKenzie Roy (12-years) had a fourth place finish in the 800m (2:36.48) and was fifth in the 1200m (2:36.48).

Full results of the meet can be found at: golden-ears.org/EagleClassicMeet.htm

Derek Drouin of Corunna, ON has joined Mike Mason of Nanoose Bay, BC on Canada’s Olympic team nomination for London in the high jump. Today he won the Big Ten Conference title with a 4 cm outdoor improvement, clearing 2.31m achieving the Olympic A+ standard. Derek, a student at Indiana University and Mike Mason must now finish in the top 3 at the Olympic trials in Calgary on June 30th to confirm their ticket....

Please visit the Harry Jerome International Track Classic blog at this link to read the remainder of this story...

Please see the job posting description here: Job Posting, and submit your application to gswan@uniserve.com

Valley Royal runners, jumpers and throwers won numerous medals Saturday at the Valley Royal Invitational held at Rotary Stadium.

Alexandria Siemens led the way for the Royals by recording easy victories in winning both the Youth women 1500 meters (4:49.37) and 800 meters (2:22.02). Using the meet as a training day, Siemens won both her events by placing more than 50 meters in front of her nearest competitors.

Other gold medals won by Royals included Chantel Desch in the junior women’s 400m (59.71) and Zach Choboter in the midget boy’s long jump (6.03m). Oliver Jorgensen had no trouble winning the youth men’s 1500 meters (4:22.27) and is primed for a good time for the BC High School Championships. Jeewan Grewal won the midget men’s hammer (39.64) and came second in the discus (36.03m). Spencer Spenst won the midget men’s pole vault (2.80m) and was second in the high jump (1.60m) and Janelle Hay was first in the junior women’s 1500m (5:11.26) and came fifth in the 800m (2:24.20)

First year Royal and all round athlete Callum Pilgrim got her career as a club runner off to an excellent start by placing second in the midget women’s 800 meters (2:23.62) and third in the 1200 meters (3:59.74). Teammate Hannah Konrad was right behind Pilgrim in the 800m (2:24.03) and then showed her diversity by rushing over to the high jump area for a third place in that event (1.50 meters). Adam Bingert has shaken off an early season injury and won two medals on Saturday with a second place finish in the midget boys 800m (2:2:11.19) and a third in the 1200m (3:40.15).

Midget woman sprinter Hailey Gibson ran a solid race in the 100-meters and produced a second place finish (12.88). Kayla Lennea turned in a competitive performance to place second to Desch in the 400 (61.20) and third in the 800m (2:21.94). Francesca Jackman was second in the junior women’s 400m hurdles (71.02) with Jordyn Visser just behind her (72.02). The Lambert brothers, Adam and Jesse, won six medals between them in the throwing events. Adam was second in the Youth men’s shot put (12.00m) and discus (41.20) and came third in the hammer (36.60) while brother Jesse had second place finishes in both the junior men’s shot put (13.10m) discus (43.03) and was third in the hammer (43.03m).

Other medal performances for Royal athletes included:
Thomas Laurie—3rd Youth men’s nigh jump (1.65m)
Sarya Ross—3rd in Youth women’s 1500m (6:13)
Manpreet Grewal—3rd in Youth women’s hammer (35.41; 4th discus (30.10m)

have now been posted here: 2012 Valley Royals Invitational Results

Please follow the link further above in the page to see the start lists for tomorrow and please let us know if you see any issues or errors.

The start times for several field events in the Valley Royals Invitational have changed - please see the revised schedule in the meet package at this link.

It can be seen at this link: Entry List.

Please check your entries and let us know of any errors or omissions.

Mike Mason, who now lives and trains in Abbotsford under the guidance of coach Ziggy Szelagowicz, qualified for selection to the London Olympics by winning the high jump Monday evening in Guadeloupe. Mason leaped a personal best 2.31 meters, a height that meets the Canadian Olympic A+ qualifying standard. Last month Mason twice cleared the "B" standard of 2.27 meters during meets at Mt. Sac and UBC.

All Mason has to do now is place amongst the top three at the Canadian Championships scheduled for Edmonton June 27 to 30.

Mason's next major competitions will be the Lafarge International scheduled for Abbotsford on Wednesday, June 6th and the Harry Jerome meet that takes place at Swangard Stadium on Sunday, June 10.

Walnut, CA, April 21—Mike Mason won the high jump Saturday at the prestigious Mt. Sac Relays held in Walnut, California. Mason cleared 2.28 meters (7’5”) to place in front of an excellent field of jumpers that included second place finisher Edgar Rivera-Morales of Arizona (2.25m) and Ed Wright, a US international who came third (2.25m).

More importantly Mason’s performance was the second time in three weeks that he has cleared the Canadian Olympic “B” standard and makes him eligible for selection to the Canadian team that will compete at this summer’s Olympic Games.

In 10 days time Mason will travel to Guadeloupe for an international meet featuring a number of world ranked jumpers. This meet will give Mason a another opportunity to achieve the world “A” standard of 2.31 meters.

Jessica Smith placed fifth in the elite women’s 800-meter run at Mt. Sac and recorded a Canadian leading time of 2:02.10. Smith, who is contesting selection to the Olympic team under the “young hopeful” category, placed in front of Lemlem Ogbasilassie (QU) the second ranked Canadian in the 800m.

Ruky Abdulai, who is preparing for the heptathlon event at the Olympics, limited herself to the javelin throw at Mt. Sac and produced a career personal best of 44.76 meters.

Django Lovett, competing for University of New Mexico, entered his first meet since being hit by a car while bicycling two months ago. Lovett took part in the university high jump competition and placed fifth with a leap of 2.13 meters.

Other Valley Royal performances in California:
Helen Crofts—Women’s 800 meters (2:05)
Jessica Smith—Women’s 1500 meters (4:21.17)
Brianna Kane—Women’s 800 meters (2:08.98)
Travis Vugteveen—Men’s 800 meters (1:53)

Five Valley Royal athletes leave for California on Wednesday to take part in the prestigious Mt. Sac Relays. Mike Mason hopes that the usually sunny and hot weather prevalent at this meet will help him improve on the 2.28-meter high jump performance that he recorded a week ago at UBC.

Ruky Abdulai, who last year obtained the Olympic standard in the heptathlon and is almost guaranteed a spot on the Canadian team that will take part in this summer’s London Olympic Games, will have her first competition of the season in the multi events. Middle distance runners Jessica Smith, Brianna Kane and Helen Crofts, each of who hopes to record season leading times over the 800-meter distance, will join Abdulai at the meet.

Chantel Desch and Alex Siemens recorded second place finishes at the Eason Invitational held Saturday, April 14 in Snohomish, Washington.

Although the Eason results web page is difficult to read and we cannot give you times or distances, we can say that both Siemens and Desch fought hard in large fields to take silver medals in the 1600 and 400 meter events respectively.

Two other club athletes, Hailey Gibson (100m) and Kayla Lennea (800m), had top eight finishes at the meet.

In spite of very cool and windy conditions on Saturday at UBC's Dhillon track, Abbotsford's Mike Mason took a big step towards being selected for this coming London Olympic Games.

The Valley Royal athlete and a former world junior champion cleared 2.28 metres meeting the Olympic 'B' standard.

To make the Olympic team, Mason must clear the 2.28 m mark once more, or jump 2.31 m (the 'A' standard), before the end of June and also make the top three at the National championships.

"I'm feeling really, really good," said Mason after his win. "This is just my second meet competing outdoors this year. The last one was last weekend in some pretty poor conditions so I'm quite excited that, just second meet out, I am able to get a 'B' standard."

"I'm using a new run-up approach devised by my coach Ziggy Szelagowicz that I haven't had in previous years and it seems to really be working. It's been a really big change for me."

In two weeks Mason will travel to California to take part in two or three meets. With the kinder climatic conditions down south it may be quite possible that Mason will achieve the A standard needed to virtually assure his Olympic selection.

The Meet Package and Entry Form for the 2012 Valley Royals Invitational on May 5th, 2012 is now available.

The Meet Package can be viewed and downloaded here:Valley Royals Invitational Meet Package

The Entry Form, which is an Acrobat PDF fillable form that can be completed on your computer and emailed to cindy.miller@valleyroyals.org or jason@valleyroyals.org, can be downloaded here: Entry Form

The meet package and registration forms for this meet will be posted to this website in the next several days. Please check back later. If you would like to receive email notification when the package and forms are posted, please send me an email at jason@valleyroyals.org and I will notify you once the website is updated.

The season is just getting going so there is still lots of time to join, compete and train.

There are details re. memberships and costs on this page: http://www.valleyroyals.org/membership.htm.

Quick summary: memberships run Jan 1 - Dec 31, so memberships cover the Cross Country season in the fall as well. Costs are around $360 for 15 yrs and younger, $470 for 16 yrs and older.

We have a large Junior Development program for ages 9-15 yrs so there are lots of training partners and camaraderie to be had. The JD program trains Monday, Weds from 4pm to approx 5:30, and Sundays from 10am. There may also be additional opportunities to train during the week for athletes that are not able to make the regular practice times - this will be dependent on demand and coach availability.

Our training groups for older athletes are listed just above - Sue Northey heads our Middle Distance training group and Ziggy Szelagowicz is our Power/Speed Coach.

You are welcome to come to practices and give it a try for 2 weeks after which we would need a commitment but this gives you the chance to make sure it is what the kids want to do. Just drop in and introduce yourself to the coaches - James and Larry for the JD program, Sue Northey and Ziggy Szelagowicz for older athletes - and they can fill you in on all the little details - or you can email the Valley Royals Manager, Jason Swan, at jason@valleyroyals.org and I will do my best to answer your questions.