• Sunday, February 16—University of Washington Open Indoor Meet (also available for post secondary school athletes)
• Saturday, March 29—Holder Relays, Yakima, Washington
• Saturday, April 19—Larry Eason High School Meet, Snohomish, Washington
• Saturday, April 26—Centennial Invitational High School Meet, Gresham, Oregon
• Saturday, May 3 - Valley Royals High School & Open Meet

Results can be seen here

A thank you to everyone that helped with the Valley Royals High School Track Meet that was held Saturday, May 3 at Abbotsford’s Swan Track.

Particular thanks go to Cindy Miller who took on the task of recruiting volunteers. Other thanks go to the 16 BC Athletics officials who gave up their Saturday to be in attendance — their help is always much appreciated and needed. And thank you to all the Valley Royal volunteers who helped including our junior development athletes who posted results, moved hurdles and acted as runners—you did an excellent job. In addition, I believe these youngsters enjoyed the food provided by Rick Hansen Secondary School. Results of the meet can be found on the Valley Royals web page.

Speaking of the junior development athletes, they will partake in their first meet of the season next Saturday when they travel to Maple Ridge for the Golden Ears meet. We hope that you all have fun at the meet.

Simon Fraser University and UBC went head to head last Friday evening at Richmond in a dual meet to decide who would win the 2008 Achilles Cup. This time UBC was the overall point winner but SFU, behind the three first places of Rucky Abdulai, won the women’s title. On a rainy and very cool evening Abdulai won the 400 (56.410), high jump (1.67) and long jump (5.82)

The Upper Fraser Valley High School Championships were held last Wednesday and Thursday at the Swan track. Valley Royal athletes had numerous first, second and third place finishes and three of the club’s athletes won aggregate championships. Spencer Prince, Carolyn Sutherland and brother Chris Sutherland were all aggregate winners. Full results of the meet can be found at http://www.fraservalleytrack.com/results.htm.

In a week’s time all the Royals who qualified last week will be back at the Abbotsford track to compete for Fraser Valley medals and qualification into the BC High School Championships.

Julia Howard, Meredith MacGregor, Rucky Abdulai and Rebecca Johnston are in Palo Alto, California today (Sunday, May 4) for the Stanford University Invitational meet. As soon as we have results they will be posted to this web page.

Nicole Fraser kept her winning streak intact on Saturday as she placed first in the girls’ javelin at the Centennial Invitational held in Gresham, Oregon.

Fraser tossed the javelin 146’04” to easily win the event in a field of more then 30 throwers. Second place went to Tauni Powell of Oregon who placed nine feet back of Fraser (138’4”). Fraser will be looking for her third win of the season when she takes part in the Abbotsford High School Invitational scheduled for this coming Saturday at Abbotsford’s Swan Track.

Manpreet Dhaliwal ran well for this early in the season and came 6th overall in the ever tough and highly competitive 800-meter event. Dhaliwal covered the two-lap distance in a time of 2:00.01. It was Dhaliwal’s first competitive run of the season over the two lap distance and he will be looking to improve on this time next Saturday.

Jared Heldman, who is in grade 10, had some solid performances for an early season meet. His best finish of the day came in the long jump where he finished fourth with a leap of 22’02”. Heldman also took part in the sprint events and ran the 100 meters in 11.35 and the 200 meters in 23.28

Sheldon Seymour also got his outdoor season of to a good start by recording a personal best of 22.95 in the 200 meters and an 11.35 effort in the 100 meters.

Another grade 10 athlete, Spencer Prince, had to endure competing with a very sore leg. But he persevered and had a 12.02 performance in the 100-meters and a toss of 39’8” in the shot put.

Four Royal runners took part in the 1500 meter event and each of them improved on their season bests. Kiya Posthumous placed eighth in the event (5:01.16) closely followed by team mate Aleah Teer who was ninth (5:02.94). Christine Wall also took part in this event and finished with a time of 5:29.19. Eric Parapini ran the boys’ 1500-meters in a time of 4:34.52.

James Clark of Maple Ridge traveled with the Royals to Gresham where he placed first in the 1500 meters in a time of 4:01.82. Kelowna’s Teegan Schoch also accompanied the club and she placed seventh in the 1500-meters with a time of 4:56.29.

Two months ago Valley Royal athlete Ruky Abdulai celebrated in being granted her Canadian citizenship. Today (Friday, April 18) she is celebrating again as she broke the Canadian record for the women’s long jump and surpassed the A standard required of Canadian athletes who wish to take part in this summer’s Olympic Games.

Competing at the Azusa Pacific Open meet in Los Angeles, Abdulai jumped 6.72 meters a distance that surpassed the previous Canadian record of 6.66 meters established by Ontario’s Nicole Devonish in 1996.

Abdulai achieved the record in spite of the fact that she only had three jumps. There were so many competitors taking part in the event that meet organizers made the decision that all jumpers would have to be satisfied with three efforts instead of the usual six.

However, on Sunday Abdulai will compete again in the long jump when she takes part in the Invitational Division of the Mt. Sac Relays and on that occasion she will have the usual six attempts.

Abulai is in her fourth and last year of eligibility at Simon Fraser University where she has been a leader and top point getter on the Clan track and field team.

At the University of Stanford meet held in Palo Alto, California, Lisa Egami came up with a personal best in the 1500 meter run. Egami who represents Washington State University placed second in the “B” final of the event in the very good time of 4:27.45. This was seven seconds faster then her previous best for the event. Egami won her section but unfortunately a Vanderbilt runner (Rita Jorgensen) won another section with a time of 4:27.40, just 5/100ths of a second faster than Egami.

It was unseasonably cold Saturday afternoon during the SFU Invitational held at the Burnaby Mountain School but four Valley Royal athletes braved the elements to record five wins.

As usual, Ruky Abdulai, who represented SFU, led the way as the Clan senior won two events. Abdulai came first in the 200 meters (25.02) and then turned her attention to the long jump and won that event with a creditable 5.92 meter performance.

On the track, Julia Howard braved the elements to record a victory in the 800 meters (2:07.88) while beam mate Rebecca Johnstone came second (2:11.53). Meredith MacGregor warmed up for her specialty, the steeplechae, by winning the flat 3000 meters (10:18.11).

Nicole Fraser followed up her victory in last week’s meet in Yakima by easily winning the javelin event with a toss of 40.17 meters.

Mitch Culley placed second in the 800 meters with a very creditable time for the conditions of 1:54.72 and Ivan Stacheli came third in the 400-meter hurdles (59.83).

The Meet package for the Valley Royals High School and Open Meet is now available. You can view and download it at this link: Meet Package.

The weather was unseasonably cool and late in the afternoon a heavy hail storm beat down on the meet held at Eisenhower High School In Yakima, Washington. In spite of everything 1,000 plus high school athletes from Washington and BC took part in the meet held last Saturday.

Valley Royal performances were led by Nicole Fraser who won the girls’ javelin with a toss of 143’11” a distance that was some 30’ further then the second place finisher. Fraser, under the guidance of coach Harold Willers, is making good progress in her quest to repeat as the provincial high school champion and then go on to do well at the Canadian Junior Championships.

"I was quite satisfied with my performance for the time of year and the less then ideal weather conditions. It was a good preparation meet for the more important competitions to be held in June and July." stated Fraser.

Ian Miller took the silver medal in the high jump event. The cold weather made high jumping difficult but Miller persisted and finished up with a very respectable 1.85 meter performance.

Three guest athletes traveled with the Royals to the meet and each of them won a gold medal. James Clark (Maple Ridge) had an easy time in winning his section of the 1600 meters and his time of 4:27.80 gave him first place overall.

Two sisters from Kelowna each had victories in 1600 meter events. Sasha Schooch won the freshman girls’ 1500 (5:22.74) meters while older sister, Teegan won the varsity race in 5:18.77.

Other Valley Royal performances:
Anthony Teer—9th Frosh 1600m (5:06.55)
David Crumley—1st in section of 100m (12.17), 4th 400 (53.74)
Manpreet Dhaliwal—8th 1600m (4:42)
Eric Parapini—27th 1600m (5:11.99)
Aleah Teer—8th 1600m (5:38)
Kiya Posthumus—11th 1600m (5:41)
Christine Wall—22nd 1600m (5:57)
Girls Distance Medley—3rd
Angela Perkins—5th Javelin (102’)
Shelby Spence—5th long jump (14’11”), 10th high jump (4’6”)
Angela Perkins—20th Long Jump (11’5”)
Tiffany Perkins—5th Pole Vault (8’)
Boys Distance Medley—3rd

Mike Mason's parents, girlfriend Janessa and friend Joel made the trip and were able to watch Mike compete at the World Indoor Championships in Valecia, Spain, so he had a full cheering section in the stands.

Mike's mother (Carol) writes, "We had a fantastic time, the qualification round was particularly exciting as we were surrounded by hundreds of Spanish school children chanting for every Spanish athlete competing, though Janessa(Mike's girlfriend) managed to convince them to cheer for Mike as well. Mike had so much height on most of his attempts, including the misses, especially in the qualifying round so we knew that he was going to jump well. What was really surprising was how strong Mike looked in the finals. He was clean on his third 2.23m and first 2.27m attempts, and then had three great attempts at 2.30m. On his third attempt Mike had cleared the bar and was on his way down when he clipped it with his right shoe. He was pretty choked that he knocked the bar as he really wanted that 2.30m again - now he will have to wait for outdoors, but he gained a huge amount of confidence at the competition and did not look out of place against elite jumpers much older than him."

First meet of the season takes place on Friday, March 29 in Yakima, Washington at the Holder Relays. Some 22 athletes will make the trip which will see the group stay in Ellensburg, Wash. on the Friday evening and then travel the 35 miles to Yakima on Saturday morning. Everyone will return home following the conclusion of the meet on Saturday afternoon and should arrive back in Abbotsford by 11:00 p.m. The Holder meet attracts over 1,000 high school athletes and features individual events as well as a number of relays. Weather is usually much warmer in Yakima then it is in Abbotsford at this time of year and that should please the group of athletes that will have just returned from Hawaii.

Thirteen athletes accompanied coach Ziggy Szelagowicz as he left from Seattle at dawn last Sunday for a 10-day training camp in Hawaii. Ziggy has mapped out a training routine that includes two or three workouts on eight of the 10 days. There is a couple of hours beach time planned for each of the days and two dates have been set aside for touring and beach games. The group will room at a local motel but have their meals served at the University of Hawaii. The University of Hawaii coach is Carmen James who is a native British Columbian and formerly the coach of UBC.

Coach James has graciously arranged for the group to use the university track and secured reasonable meal prices for them at the school's cafeteria. It should be quite an experience and hopefully all of the speed and jumps group will return home fit and ready for the fast approaching season.

The first Annual Run for Water Half Marathon, 10k & 5k Fun Run will take place this June 1, beginning and ending at Mill Lake. A portion of each runners' registration fees will be donated to Hope International Development Agency ( www.hope-international.com ) and their important work in Ethiopia, and 100% of funds raised through participant fundraising (i.e. sponsorships) will go directly to a clean water project in Ethiopia. The event will also include kids entertainment and a performance by Greg Neufeld (Canadian Idol Finalist).

Further details can be found at the event website, 1st Annual Run for Water.

Behind the scoring of Ruky Abdulai the Simon Fraser University Women’s Indoor Track and field team took third place in the NAIA Championships held last weekend in Johnston City, TN. The Clan women scored 59 points led by the two gold medals and one silver medal secured by Abdulai.

The clan senior won the long jump with a leap of 6.43m and captured the high jump for the fourth consecutive year with a height of 1.75 meters and came second in the 60 meters (6.48). Abdulai is the first athlete in the history of the meet to win the high jump in four consecutive years. For her performances, Abdulai was named as the Most Valuable Female Performer of the Meet.

Coach Brit Townsend once again came in for individual honors as she was named Region 1 Female Coach of the Year.

Meanwhile at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain, Mike Mason placed seventh in the final of the high jump with height of 2.27 meters. Mason qualified for the final by making it through the preliminaries that were held on Friday the day before the final. In the final if Mason had been able to clear the next height of 2.30 meters, a height that he had negotiated earlier this year, the Valley Royal jumper would have placed third in the event.

High jumper Mike Mason, accompanied by coach Larry Blaschuk, leaves this week for the World Indoor Championships that take place in Valencia, Spain March 7-9. Mason will also have the support of his mother and dad at the meet as Carol and Ron Mason will make the trip to Spain. Mason is no newcomer to international competition as previously he has competed in the World Youth Championships, the World Junior Championships and the FISU Games. Mike’s biggest success came at the World Junior Championships were he pulled off a upset by taking the gold medal in his specialty. It was no easy feat, as Mason needed third attempts to clear the bar at three successive heights. But then with the bar at 2.22 meters, Mason cleared on his first attempt while the other three competitors did not clear that height until their second or third tries. When all four remaining jumpers failed at the next height, Mason was declared the winner under the rules of the high jump. We wish Mike all the best for a good performance at the Championships.

In two weeks time a group of a dozen plus power-speed athletes will travel to Hawaii with coach Ziggy Szelagowicz and chaperone Esther Kamphuis. It will be a busy 10 days as Ziggy has planned two or three workouts per day. "Although there will be some time for relaxation on Hawaii’s beaches, the main purpose of this trip is to prepare for the coming outdoor season and to that end I expect the athletes to work very hard," commented Szelagowicz. Daily communiques detailing the athletes’ activities for that day will be emailed by Ziggy to parents back home.

When the group returns to Abbotsford they will have only three days before departing for Yakima, Washington for the Holder Relays. In Yakima the power/speed group will be joined by Sue Northey’s middle distance contingent. The Holder Relays take place on Saturday, March 29 with the team traveling to the meet on the Friday and then returning home upon completion of the competition on Saturday.

And last but not least, the Simon Fraser University team will leave a week Wednesday for the NAIA Indoor Championships that take place in Johnson City, Tennessee. The Clan will be led at the Championships by Ruky Abdulai (a member of the Valley Royals) who as usual is expected to lead the team in scoring. Ruky leads the NAIA national performance rankings in the long jump, high jump and 400 meters while she ranks second in the 60-meter dash. Other Royals expected to make the trip include Angela Shaw and Mitch Culley.

Not to be outdone, Kiya Posthumus made a long bus trip last week to Kimberley where she took part in the Olympic Academy that was part of the BC Winter Games. Kiya left Abbotsford on Wednesday evening for the all night trip to Kimberley and then made the return trip on Sunday night. "It was an excellent experience and the discussions were very stimulating," stated Kiya. "It was a very worthwhile and stimulating time but I was slightly tired on Monday," is how Kiya summed it up.

The 2007 Valley Royals Awards Banquet was held on Wednesday, February 20 with athletes, parents and special guests in attendance. After an excellent dinner, Kirk Bryde, a former Canadian record holder in the pole vault, acted as the guest speaker. Kirk gave an excellent talk on what it takes to excel in sport or in life.

Then it was time for the award presentations. Every athlete member of the Royals during 2007 who attended the banquet received an award with the Junior Development athletes presented with plaques outlining their performances and the older athletes received engraved Royal glasses.

The major award winners were presented as follows:

Colleen Gibson Trophy as Rookie of the Year
Andrew Ott

Greg Duhaime Tropy for Most Improved Athlete
JD Winners—Emma Beckett & Anthony Teer
Senior Winner—Meredith McGregor

Toni Goode Trophy for All Round Athlete
JD Winner—Spencer Prince
Senior Winner—Rukayatu Abdulai

Matt Peters Trophy for Most Inspirational Athlete
JD Winner—Sarya Ross
Juvenile Winner—Manpreet Dhaliwal
Senior Winner—Rebecca Johnstone

Brit Townsend Trophy for Outstanding Athlete
JD Winner—Jared Heldman
Juvenile Winner—Ian Miller
Junior Winner—Mitch Culley
Senior Winner—Mike Mason

Valley Royals Service Award
Mike Inman & Kim Johnston

Jane Swan Service Award
April Arsene

So now it’s on to the 2008 season and it’s the hope of the Valley Royal coaches and executive that our athletes will once again be represented on many Canadian teams. But more importantly we want every athlete to lean to enjoy the sport of track and field and to represent the club with pride.

See you all at the Valley Royals Banquet this Wednesday at the Legacy Sports Center next to the track at Rotary Stadium. Doors open at 6:00, dinner will be served at 6:45. As always, the evening with consist of the much-anticipated funny awards as well as our club awards. If you have not yet let your coach know you intend to attend, please do so now!

Although she considers the long jump to be her prime event on Saturday at Seattle’s Dempsey Indoor facility, Ruky Abdulai came up with one of her best ever high jump performances by clearing 1.85 meters to easily win that event. Her victory was just 1-cm shy of the facility record of 1.86m.

Abdulai then proceeded to the long jump pit to record a 6.30 performance which on this day was good enough for second place. The event was won Arantza King (Stanford) with a jump of 6.36 meters.

Tom Dickson, who a week ago was presented with the 2007 BC Athletics Master Athlete of the Year Award, proved that although he might be older, he is still improving with age. Dickson placed second in the master’s 60 meter dash with a time of 7.62.

Julia Howard placed second in the 800 meters with a time of 2:05.62 in an event that was won by Nicole Tetter (Oregon Track Club) in 2:03.80.

Mitch Culley came 16th in the men’s mile run (4:22.81).

In two weeks time there will be another meet at Dempsey Stadium and a number of the Valley Royals Abbotsford group will take part in the meet.

Ruky Abdulai was sworn in as a Canadian citizen on Thursday and that means the Valley Royal and SFU athlete is eligible, if selected, to compete for Canada at this coming summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Abdulai hopes to qualify for the Olympics in the long jump where her 6.70-meter leap at the 2007 NAIA outdoor championships would have broken the 11-year old Canadian record of 6.66 if she had been a citizen then. She could also qualify in the 4x400-meter relay, given that she has excellent times in that event.

“It means so much to me,” Abdulai said of the accelerated push to get her citizenship papers. “Today, sitting in the ceremony, I had this feeling like my life is starting all over again.”

Abdulai was a star age-group runner in Ghana before her father, a United Nations employee, was transferred to Holland when she was 13. Her ability attracted the attention of several US universities and she verbally agreed to attend the University of Missouri.

But while studying English in New York for a year, Brit Townsend, head coach at SFU, answered and email from Ruky inquiring about the program at the Burnaby university. Townsend’s reply convinced Abdulai that that SFU was the school she wanted to attend and she dropped the offer from Missouri.

But Ghana got wind of Ruky’s excellent performance at SFU and contacted her to ask if she would compete for that country at last summer’s World Championships. “But I knew if I competed for them, I would have to wait five years to compete for Canada. I said No, I’m not going to compete for you and this man, II don’t know who he was, but he was not happy. He starts screaming at me, “This is the fourth time we have lost a Ghanaian athlete to Canada.” Abdulai had soured on Ghana for two reasons. In 2000, after winning a competition for the top junior female and male athletes to go to the Sydney Olympics with provided by the US, she was left behind, the money having mysteriously disappeared.

A few years later, a Ghanaian-backed scholarship to the University of Virginia was pulled when officials said that since her parents could afford to take her to Holland, she didn’t need it.

Abdulai needs to jump 6.72 twice before August to make the Canadian Olympic Committee’s A standard qualification for Beijing. Even if she doesn’t make that mark, she could still go to the Olympics under the COC’s rising star criteria.

And she has an added incentive to make the Olympic team. Abdulai hasn’t seen her parents in 3 1/2 years. Her dad, who now works in Congo, has said he will come to Beijing if she qualifies.

(This article reprinted in part from Gary Kingston’s column in the Vancouver Sun, February 1, 2008)

High jumper Mike Mason is pretty sure that he can arrange is his studies at UBC so that he can attend the World Indoor Championships scheduled for March 7-9 in Valencia, Spain. Mason achieved the standard for selection to the Canadian team two weeks ago at the University of Washington where he won his specialty in a personal best 2.30 meters. Although the indoor championships take place shortly before his final exams at UBC, Mason is confident that he can attend the championships and still be prepared to write his exams.