Seniors Smash PRs at USA Championships

On June 27th in Eugene, Oregon, six TEAM members competed in the 20km racewalk at the USA Track and Field Championships.

First up we had the men and in this race we had Coach Tim, Trevor and Chris. Trevor had decided to forgo his last Junior Nationals race to race for a spot on the World Championship team instead. Trevors plan was to go for the World Championship 'B' standard of 1:24:00 and hope that he would be able to win in the process. Trevor started off with John Nunn and Patrcik Stroupe and after a few kilometers went off by himself and the only thing that slowed him down were a few red cards. Because of those red cards, Trevor had to be very cautious and didnt push all the way to make sure that he didnt get disqualified. Trevor still managed to win the race in a time of 1:23:25.10 which was under the 'B' standard for the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea in August. On the way to his title he managed to break Junior records every 5km's along the way, breaking the 5km, 10km, 15km and 20km Junior Road Records, wow!!!

Coach Tim raced steady keeping his place right from the gun. In typical Coach Tim style these days, he was more concerned about how his athletes were doing than racing himself. Since he couldnt challenge for 3rd and 5th was distant from him, he kept his 4th place from the beginning to the end and finished in a time of 1:31:28.32. Chris started off very well and looked strong but with a few kilometers to go you could see that Chris was having some problems, similar to the health problems he had been having the few months leading up to the race. He ended up being disqualified because he was wavering and as soon as he was shown the red paddle, he collapsed. Luckily after some help from some paramedics, Chris was fine.



Only 3 minutes later the women's race was off. We had Maria as defending champion, Lauren and Katie for the TEAM. Maria's plan was to go with Teresa Vail and fight till the end for the spot on the World Championship team. Maria did just that as the pair went out in a blazing pace clipping off kilometers in the 4:30's for the first 5km's. The pace started to slow and both women started to fade but it became a race of who would fade the least. Fortunately, Maria won that battle and smashed her PR and won another National title in a time of 1:34:51.47 and earned her spot on the World Championship team.

Fighting for another medal was Lauren as she finished 3rd last year. She started off the race very smart hanging with a few girls before she decided to pick up the pace after a few kilometers. Lauren walked the rest of the race alone, pushing the whole way and the hard work paid off finishing in a huge PR of 1:37:40.86, an Olympic 'B' standard and another 3rd place finish! Finishing up for the TEAM was Katie and she didnt disappoint. Katie has come a long way in a year and she walked practically the whole race alone and she looked strong. She finished in 5th with a huge PR of 1:41:10.49, 10 minutes faster than last year!



The TEAM finished a very successful weekend earning 7 medals between the USA and Canadian National Championships! Congratulations everyone! Up next for the TEAM is Tyler competing at the World Youth Championships in Lille, France.

Stay tuned!

TEAM