When a track and field club names a hammer thrower as its top athlete, you would expect to see a big beefy specimen come up to collect the trophy — right?
Wrong.
Peninsula Track and Field’s Courtenay Neville-Rutherford has the normal physique for a 15 year-old. But the Parkland secondary school student had the athletic capacity and the mental desire to triumph over much bigger competitors at the Canadian Youth Championships in Ottawa earlier this year and win her first national gold medal. This, combined with both her personal best throw of 48.85 metres and her winning of the Vancouver Island Weight Pentathlon with a total of 3,444 points, out-throwing all older competitors, earned her Pen Track’s Most Inspirational Athlete trophy for 2011.
Another major medal winner, this time a World Masters silver in Sacramento, California, Sandy Anderson was named as the top Masters Athlete. Her winning W70 High Jump of 1.20m set a new Canadian age-group record, as did her 1.50 metre pole vault gold medal winning performance at the B.C. Seniors Games.
Among the younger athletes, race walkers Jacqueline and Spencer Gaby received Fiona Clarke Sportsmanship trophies, as did Julia Irwin and Kaelen Smith.
Matteo Hilton, Michael Giles and Isaiah Smith were the joint winners of the Eleanor Richardson Memorial trophies for their outstanding performances during the season, while the Novice trophies went to Finn and Piper Batterby and Connor McCullough, all of whom had great results in their first year of track and field.
The Runner of the Year Trophy was awarded jointly to middle distance runner Anna-Marie Hilton, who first joined the club in the Track Rascals program as a six year-old, and Caelan MacEwan, who had a banner year as a 100m and 200m hurdler.
Leigh MacFadyen was named Jumper of the Year, and another masters competitor, Don Bradeur, who had stellar performances in the M50 age category, was given the Thrower of the Year trophy.
Pen Track takes second look at resurfacing plan
At the year-end barbecue picnic when the awards were given out, the club membership also agreed to proceed with a modified program of track resurfacing at Parkland, since the prospects of raising the $3 million required to completely upgrade the present facility appear dim in these times of economic restraint.
The Peninsula track and field club hopes the revised project could have the new surface in place by 2013.