This is not the news the domestic track and field scene was expecting in the wake of the breakthrough six-medal Canadian performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics last summer.
The 2017 National Track League has constricted with the dropping of the annual Edmonton event. The NTL will tentatively go ahead with four meets this year, including the 29th annual Victoria Track Classic on June 8 at Centennial Stadium, along with the venerable Harry Jerome meet in Burnaby and others in Halifax and Guelph, Ont.
But even that is not officially confirmed.
“We’re still waiting on Sport Canada funding,” said Brent Fougner, one of the key organizers, about the status of the Victoria meet. “Without that, it would be hard to put on.”
Fougner said Sport Canada funding for the Victoria meet is for $50,000 and that organizers expect to hear soon about it. He added organizers have also approached the provincial government.
“Sport Canada usually likes matching grants and the support of other levels of government,” said Fougner.
Fougner said the budget for the annual Victoria meet is between $80,000 to $100,000.
The Edmonton meet strived for a starrier field of ‘name’ athletes, and so had a much higher budget of $405,000. The hobbled Alberta economy is being blamed as the main reason the meet is being discontinued.
Last year’s Victoria meet attracted a number of 2016 Olympians, who tuned up at Centennial Stadium for the Summer Games, including Canadians such as Rio gold-medallist high jumper Derek Drouin and fourth-place 800-metre runner Melissa Bishop.
TRACK NOTES: Athletics Canada’s Western Hub training centre, located in Victoria, has left for a three-week warm-weather camp at the U.S. Olympic training centre in San Diego. Included in the group heading down are 2016 Olympians Anthony Romaniw, Andrea Seccafien and Gabriela Stafford.
“It sets the athletes up for a really strong start to their outdoor season. The weather is the number one reason we go down there,” said Victoria’s West Hub manager Julianne Zussman.
The big event of the year is the 2017 world track and field championships Aug. 4-13 in London.
