Just follow the bouncing athletes.
That’s the advice for spectators looking for a big result at Wednesday’s Harry Jerome Classic track and field meet from former Olympian and current coach of the Coquitlam Cheetahs, Tara Self.
“If they look like they’re excited to be on the track, they’re ready to go,” said Self, a sprinter who represented Canada at two Olympic games. “They look happy, they’ve got that bounce to them.”
Watching a track meet can be a little like attending a five-ring circus with numerous competitions all occurring simultaneously; a javelin pierces the sky across the field as hurdlers step into the blocks at the end of the front straight while a high-jumper clears the bar at the end of the stadium.
“It isn’t like a hockey game or a soccer game where you can sit and see the play going back and forth,” Self said. “You have to be externally aware, you have to be looking around.”
And listening.
Self said taking cues from the public address announcers as they introduce athletes or preview a competition can help prepare spectators for a big performance. The anticipation of the crowd will fill in the rest.
“You’ll be able to feel the buzz of what people are looking at,” Self said.
That buzz also fuels the athletes.
With Percy Perry filled to capacity, Self said the atmosphere will be electric and that charges up the competitors to perform their best.
“You totally feed off that,” Self said. “You’re here to compete but it’s a show. The athletes know people are here to watch them.”
Among those spectators will be most of the 210 young athletes who comprise the Cheetahs club. Many of them will be volunteering, carrying clothes boxes for the competitors, moving blocks at the starting lines. It’s a unique opportunity to get close to top athletes and see what it takes to get there, Self said.
“The kids are very excited,” Self said. “Every kid wants to play in the NHL but it isn’t until you’ve actually been around an athlete of that calibre that you understand where you could potentially go as an athlete.”
The benefits of having top athletes like Andre De Grasse running on the same track could be felt by the Cheetahs in years to come, Self said, as kids get turned on to the sport. Getting a bump in membership is common in Olympic years she said. Her challenge is to turn that curiosity into passion.
“It’s retaining those athletes and having a program that encourages them to come out year after year and try their best,” Self said. “We can say, you know what, if you stick with this you could be at the Olympics eight or 12 years down the road.”
Athletes to watch
Andre De Grasse (100m and 200m)
He’s the event’s poster boy and he’ll be hard to miss. De Grasse ran his first sub-10 second 100m just over two years ago, but he bolted into Canadian sports’ consciousness at last year’s 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro when he literally turned the head of sprinting superstar Usain Bolt. “He’s going to be good, he runs just like me,” said gold-medalist Bolt after De Grasse won the bronze, just a tenth of a second behind the champion’s time of 9.81 seconds.
Self says De Grasse will be in good form in Coquitlam.
“I don’t think he’s showing up just to put a run in,” said the Coquitlam Cheetahs’ coach. “He needs to be running well enough to qualify for our world championships’ team.”
Alyx Treasure (high jump)
Treasure is an up-and-coming high jumper from Prince George.
After winning to Canadian high jump titles in 2014 and 2015, Treasure finished seventh at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto. In May of last year, she qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics by leaping her personal best, 1.93m. She went on to reach the event’s final in Rio and finished 17th.
To qualify for the IAAF World Champhionships in London on Aug. 4 to 13, she’ll have to clear 1.94m.
Melissa Bishop (800m)
Bishop has been running since 2004, but it wasn’t until 2012 she broke through 2:00 in the 800m. Three years later she won the gold medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto and a silver at the World Championships in Beijing. She finished fourth at 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
Bishop will be looking to defend her title as 800m champion in last year’s Harry Jerome Classic.
Liz Gleadle (javelin)
Gleadle was born in Vancouver and attended UBC, so she’ll essentially be throwing at home.
Gleadle is a six-time Canadian champion in the javelin and she’s ranked 18th in the world. She holds the throw for a Canadian woman, 64.83 metres, and in 2015 she set the Jerome meet record of 64.34 metres.
Anthony Romaniw (800m)
When he was a kid, Romaniw was always known as the fastest kid in his school. Now he wants to be the fastest 800m runner at the Jerome.
Romaniw has competed for Canada at the 2013 Summer Universiade, the 2013 IAAF World Championship, the 2015 Pan Am Games and the 2016 Olympics in Rio. A good time of 1:45:90 at Percy Perry Stadium, which is just a touch slower than his personal best of 1:45:60, will qualify him for 2017 World Championship in London.
Competition at the Harry Jerome Classic begins at about 6:20 p.m. The gates open at Percy Perry Stadium at 5:30 but the event is completely sold out and there will be no further ticket sales at the door. The meet is being live-streamed at athleticscanada.tv.
