OTTAWA (CIS) – Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Monday the 29 student-athletes who will represent Canada in athletics at the 25th Summer Universiade from July 1-12, 2009, in Belgrade, Serbia.
2009 Summer Universiade website:
www.universiade-belgrade2009.org
Team Canada website:
www.universitysport.ca/belgrade
The University of Calgary sends two athletes to the Canadian team - sprinters
Sam Effah and
Amonn Nelson, along with team leader Les Gramantik, longtime head coach of the Dinos.
Effah, the 2008 University of Calgary male athlete of the year, is the two-time defending CIS Track Athlete of the Year. He will compete in both the 200-metre dash and the 4x100-metre relay. Nelson is the reigning CIS champion at 300 metres and will run the 200 and the 4x400 relay in Belgrade.
Highlighting the national selection of 14 female and 15 male athletes is a foursome of 2008 Olympians including hammer thrower James Steacy of Lethbridge, Alta., 400-metre specialist Carline Muir of Edmonton, high jumper Michael Mason of Nanoose Bay, B.C., and long jumper Ruky Abdulai of Coquitlam, B.C.
Another Team Canada member, sprinter Richard Adu-Bobie of Orleans, Ont., was an alternate for the Canadian 4x100m relay at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.
Last summer in Beijing, Steacy became the first Canadian in 84 years to reach the Olympic hammer throw final, finishing in 10th place. The native of Saskatoon was 13th in the event at the 2007 IAAF world championships and won gold medals in the discipline at the 2007 Pan American Games and the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie. He holds the national record of 79.13 metres, 2.19m more than the toss which earned Belarus' Aleksandr Vashchyla Universiade gold in 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Steacy is one of the most decorated athletes in CIS track and field history. He was named male rookie of the year in 2002-03, was chosen athlete of the year in field events on four occasions, and in five appearances at the CIS championships with the Lethbridge Pronghorns he captured five weight throw titles and won the shot put competition three times. He remained undefeated in the weight throw his entire university career.
Muir, a native of Jamaica who was part of the Alberta Pandas program for two years, reached the semi-finals of the 400m in Beijing. She ended up in 16th position.
Mason, a UBC student, was 19th in the high jump in Beijing and finished eighth at the 2008 world indoor championships in Spain. The native of New Westminster, B.C., was crowned junior world champion in 2004 in Grosseto, Italy.
Abdulai, who studies at Simon Fraser, was 26th in the long jump at the 2008 Olympics.
Steacy and Mason head a group of nine athletes who have Universiade experience.
Steacy competed in the discus in 2005 in Izmir, Turkey, where he placed eighth in the qualifying round and did not advance. Mason jumped his way to ninth place in 2007 in Bangkok.
The other Team Canada members with FISU Games experience are University of Windsor decathlete Jamie Adjetey-Nelson of Windsor, Ont., Toronto high jumper Mark Dillon of Bowmanville, Ont., Simon Fraser 1,500m runner Julia Howard of St. John's, BC Institute of Technology 800m specialist Rebecca Johnstone of Bowen Island, B.C., Western Kentucky 200m sprinter Gavin Smellie of Etobicoke, Ont., UBC 400m runner Nathan Vadeboncoeur of Vancouver, and Toronto pole vaulter Jason Wurster of Stevensville, Ont.
Howard and Vadeboncoeur are both veterans of the last two Summer Universiades.
Les Gramantik and Ingrid Ruys-George will act as team leader and team official, respectively, while Richard Crevier, Brett Lumley, Carla Nicholls, Dave Scott-Thomas and James Wardle make up the coaching staff.
Crevier is a four-time CIS coach of the year in men's track and field and has earned the same honour twice in men's cross country running. Scott-Thomas has received 13 CIS coach-of-the-year awards in women's and men's athletics and cross country.
Canada has tallied 59 athletics medals in its history at the Universiade including four golds, 29 silvers and 26 bronzes.
While Canadian track and field athletes have claimed at least one medal at all but one FISU Games since 1983 (no medals in 1991), they have failed to reach the top of the podium since Guillaume Leblanc and Dave Steen were crowned in the 20km walk and the decathlon, respectively, 26 years ago in Edmonton.
Leblanc went on to capture Olympic silver in 1992 while Steen earned Olympic bronze in 1988.
Canada's other Universiade track and field gold medallists are Zbigniew “Bishop” Dolegiewicz, the shot put champion in Rome in 1975, and Bill Crothers, crowned on 800m in Budapest, Hungary, in 1965.
Canada's lone athletics medal at the 2007 Bangkok Universiade was a third-place finish by Neville Wright in the men's 100m.
The track and field competition is set from July 7 to 11 in Belgrade with one final, the women's 10,000m, schedule on day one. Tulsa's Alex Becker of Guelph Ont., represents Canada in the event.
TEAM CANADA ROSTER
Women
Ruky Abdulai, Long Jump (Simon Fraser - Coquitlam, B.C.)
Esther Akinsulie, 400, 4x400 (Carleton - Kanata, Ont.)
Alex Becker, 10,000 (Tulsa - Guelph, Ont.)
Lindsey Bergevin, High Jump (Alberta - Leduc, Alta.)
Gabriella Duclos-Lasnier, Pole Vault (Arizona - Sarnia, Ont.)
Elizabeth Gleadle, Javelin (UBC - Vancouver, B.C.)
Heather Hamilton, Pole Vault (York - Mississauga, Ont.)
Julia Howard, 1,500 (Simon Fraser - St. John's, Nfld.)
Kimberly Hyacinthe, 200, 4x400 (Vanier College - Terrebonne, Que.)
Rebecca Johnstone, 800 (BCIT - Bowen Island, B.C.)
Rachel Lavallee, 20km walk (Sir Sandford Fleming - Peterborough, Ont.)
Meredith MacGregor, 3,000 steeplechase (Simon Fraser - Surrey, B.C.)
Carline Muir, 400, 4x400 (Alberta - Edmonton, Alta.)
Amonn Nelson, 200, 4x400 (Calgary - Calgary, Alta.)
Men
Jamie Adjetey-Nelson, decathlon (Windsor, Windsor, Ont.)
Richard Adu-Bobie, 100, 4x100 (Texas A&M - Orleans, Ont.)
Kyle Boorsma, 1,500 (Guelph - Guelph, Ont.)
Mark Dillon, high jump (Toronto - Bowmanville, Ont.)
Sam Effah, 200, 4x100 (Calgary - Calgary, Alta.)
Alex Genest, 3,000 steeplechase (Sherbrooke - Lac-aux-Sables, Que.)
Inaki Gomez, 20 km walk (UBC - Vancouver, B.C.)
Daniel Harper, 400 (Seneca College - Brampton, Ont.)
Timothy Konoval, 1,500 (Western Ontario - Parry Sound, Ont.)
Michael Mason, high jump (UBC - Nanoose Bay, B.C.)
Gavin Smellie, 200, 4x100 (Western Kentucky - Etobicoke, Ont.)
Oluseyi Smith, 100, 4x100 (Loughborough - Ottawa, Ont.)
James Steacy, hammer throw (Lethbridge - Lethbridge, Alta.)
Nathan Vadeboncoeur, 400 (UBC - Vancouver, B.C.)
Jason Wurster, pole vault (Toronto - Stevensville, Ont.)
STAFF
Les Gramantik - Team Leader (Calgary - Calgary, Alta.)
Ingrid Ruys-George - Team Official (Sidney, B.C.)
Richard Crevier - Coach (Sherbrooke - Sherbrooke, Que.)
Brett Lumley - Coach (Windsor - Windsor, Ont.)
Carla Nicholls - Coach (Regina - Regina, Sask.)
Dave Scott-Thomas - Coach (Guelph - Guelph, Ont.)
James Wardle - Coach (Guelph - Guelph, Ont.)
Ghislaine Robert - Doctor (Redmond, Wash.)
Kenneth Simpson - Medical (Victoria, B.C.)
CANADA'S ATHLETICS GOLD MEDALS AT THE SUMMER UNIVERSIADE:
Canada has 59 medals in athletics at the Summer Universiade (4 gold, 29 silver, 26 bronze). Canada's Universiade gold medallists are:
1983 (Edmonton, Canada): Guillaume Leblanc, 20 km walk
1983 (Edmonton, Canada): David Steen, decathlon
1975 (Rome, Italy): Zbigniew “Bishop” Dolegiewicz, shot put
1965 (Budapest, Hungary): Bill Crothers, 800m
About the Summer Universiade
The Summer Universiade is an international multi-sport event that takes place every two years, and is second only to the Olympic Games in the number of participating athletes and countries. The Universiade is open to competitors between the ages of 17 and 28 in the year of the Games who are full-time students at a post-secondary institution (university, college, CEGEP) or have graduated from a post-secondary institution in the year preceding the event.
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-two universities, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, and 32 World University Championships. CIS is proud to support the 2015 Edmonton Summer Universiade bid. For further information, visit www.universitysport.ca.
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