For Peninsula Track’s nine- year-olds, Dillon Larson and Kaelyn Drummond, a sunny weekend in Port Alberni brought ribbons and smiles to their eager faces as they ran, jumped and threw in their first ever Vancouver Island track meet.
Larson won four ribbons, beginning with a second place in the 90-centimetre high jump. He followed that up with third place finishes in the 600 metre run (2m 24.72s), long jump (2.46m) and shot put (3.41m).
Drummond gained her third place ribbon with a 4.22m effort in the shot.
In total, the 25 Club athletes brought home more than 100 first to eighth place ribbons from this opening meet of the Island series.
Among the younger athletes, Julia Peterson, 12, had the greatest success with her winning throw of 6.20m in the shot, second places in the hammer throw (14.78m) and 1200m (4:46.37) and thirds in the 800m, high jump and discus.
Ellaina Coley, 10, collected three ribbons from the 1000m and discus (second in each) and won third place in the 60m hurdle.
Alyssia Jensen, 13, was on the podium twice (third place finishes in the 800m and the hammer). Alexis Newton, 12, and Rawdia Bartrim, 13, were third in their respective 200m run and 200m hurdles events.
On the boys’ side, Sean Kirkendale, 10, began his second season with the Club by winning the shot event (6.01m) and placing second in both the javelin (13.75m) and 600m (2:11:49).
His brother Liam, 12, placed second in his javelin event (23.86m).
Charles Dutton, 13, placed second in both the 800m (2:44:33) and the 1200m (4:16:32), as did Jack Coley, 12, in his 1200m event (4:34:28).
Also having fun in the sun were the Pen Track Masters athletes.
Showing the benefits of the winter-long training sessions, Les East (M75) chalked up six wins in the high jump (1:10m), triple jump (7.12m), shot (8.71m), discus (26.42m), javelin (21.37m) and hammer (30.70m).
Peter Auvinen (M65) claimed four winning ribbons in javelin (32.11m, a personal best), shot (9.17m), discus (23.75m) and hammer (25.92m).
Better known for their Highland Games “heavy metal” performances, Adam Drummond (M35) took firsts in all four throwing events (discus, shot, javelin and hammer) and Carl Jensen (M40) aced his discus, hammer and shot competitions.
Mette Fossberg (W60) rounded out the successful “mature athletes” trip with her 200m 38.28s win.
— Danny Daniels is a longtime coach and athlete with Peninsula Track