The absence of big-name Olympic medallists Andre De Grasse and Damian Warner, due to COVID-19 and injury respectively, took a bit of shine off the Canadian track and field championships at McLeod Stadium in Langley this weekend.
But the spotlight still lit up the hammer-throw ring brightly as Adam Keenan of Victoria won his fifth consecutive national championship ahead of this summer’s world championships in Eugene, Oregon, and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. The moment was all the more special with his 91-year-old grandmother, Patsy Stewart, watching.
“She has supported me all along in this journey and been at every meet,” said Keenan.
Keenan’s winning throw was 75.17 metres. Fellow Islander Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, selected with Keenan for the 2022 Commonwealth Games team, was second at 71.75 and Rowan Hamilton of Richmond third at 67.91.
“Those two guys [Katzberg and Hamilton] are so young at 20 and 22 but I am amazed at their talent level and it’s a changing of the tide,” said Keenan.
“I can’t wait to see what they accomplish in the future.”
But the present still belongs to Keenan. The former Lambrick Park Secondary star and 2011 B.C. high school track and field male athlete of the year, and former Big Sky Conference champion in NCAA Division 1 with Northern Arizona, was fourth in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. His Olympic dreams for Tokyo ended in a driving downpour at the 2021 Canadian trials in Montreal, where he won the national championship, but missed the qualifying standard.
“I said when I got into this that I want to exit an Olympian and Paris 2024 is the goal,” said Keenan, 28.
“It didn’t work out for Tokyo but I am going to work really hard for Paris.”
An Island athlete who did not miss the Japan Games had a uniquely impressive breakthrough weekend in Langley. Nate Riech of Victoria, gold medallist last summer in the Tokyo Paralympics 1,500 metres, made the semifinals in the able-bodied 1,500 metres at nationals. It’s all about getting faster, regardless of category.
“I’m just trying to get fully prepared. I go in every race thinking I’m going to win, it doesn’t matter if it’s Para or able-bodied,” Riech said in a statement.
The able-bodied 1,500 metres semifinals were held on Saturday night with the final today.
This year provides the added challenge of the tight double with the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, from July 28 to Aug. 8 (track and field at Alexander Stadium from July 30 to Aug. 7), following closely after the world track and field championships July 15-24 at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
The Canadian Commonwealth Games track and field team has been named, with Keenan and John Barsby Secondary graduate Katzberg on it, with the team for the worlds to be announced next week.
The timeline of the potential back-to-back double doesn’t faze Keenan: “You spend all these years dreaming of getting to this level. It’s here now. And you embrace the opportunity.”
In terms of future watch at the national meet was the performance of Nanaimo race-walker Olivia Lundman, who won the women’s Under-20 10K in 49:23 as she aims for the U-20 world track and field championships this summer in Cali, Colombia.
