World track and field luminaries such as John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Dwight Stones, John Walker, Linford Christie and Frankie Fredericks have competed at Centennial Stadium over 50 years.
Numerous home-grown Olympians, too, have come out of the facility built to commemorate Canada’s 100th anniversary in 1967. Almost all of them came through the Island high school championships, the 50th edition of which is taking place Wednesday and today.
The first day got off to a rattling start, with Tyler Dozzi of Oak Bay claiming the boys’ 3,000 metres and breaking the meet record in the process. Dozzi’s 8:28.00 smashed the former standard of 8:34.78 established last year by Brendan Hoff of Reynolds Secondary. The 3,000 metres is the longest distance contested at the high school level.
Dozzi is from Terrace. He moved to the Island last year in Grade 11 to run with the Prairie Inn Harriers under coach Bruce Deacon, a former international runner who ran the marathon at the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics. Deacon won silver at the 2003 Pan Am Games.
“Bruce is a two-time Olympian and I have learned so much from him,” said Dozzi, who won the B.C. cross-country championship in the fall.
“There was not a proper training track in Terrace, and I was basically training on my own and not reaching my potential. I met Bruce [Deacon] at nationals and he suggested I come to Victoria.”
It meant moving away from his family. But to say it was a wise move athletically would be an understatement — even though moving into a new catchment area, without his parents, meant Dozzi had to forfeit his Grade 11 year of school competition.
“I want to make national teams, starting with U-20,” Dozzi said.
Suddenly, all that seems possible.
A standout in the classroom as well, Dozzi will run track and cross-country in the Canada West Conference of U Sports for the Thunderbirds at the University of British Columbia, where he plans to study aerospace or mechanical engineering.
It is a foregone conclusion that Oak Bay will win its 25th consecutive team title when the 50th anniversary Island championships conclude today at the stadium on the University of Victoria campus.
The powerhouse Bays will then stalk their 12th provincial title in 16 years at the B.C. high school track and field championships, June 1-3 at Langley.
“I really want that B.C. team banner this year,” Dozzi said.
“We [Oak Bay] won it in cross-country earlier this season and want to do it in track and field, too.”
