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Lethbridge's Steacy wins 2011 National Track League; Next up FISU
Lethbridge – Heather Steacy competed in the inaugural 2011 National Track League, a point based grand prix style series, consisting of 5 competitions with stops in Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Halifax and Toronto over the course of two weeks.
On June 13th, Heather was crowned the National Track League
Champion for the Women’s Hammer event scoring 30 points to
win the trophy.
The series was put into place to give athletes more opportunities
to compete at home in Canada instead of having to go over to Europe
or elsewhere, allowing Canadian spectators the chance to see some
of the top athletes competing across the country.
Steacy’s busy summer continues, being named this morning to
the Canadian track and field team for the 26th Summer Universiade
in August in Shenzhen, China.
Canada is coming off its second-best showing in history at the
biennial event with eight medals in 2009 in Belgrade, Serbia. The
performance trails only a 13-podium tally in 1983 in Edmonton, the
only time the world university games have been held on Canadian
soil.
Since 1965, Canadians have captured 67 medals in athletics at the
games. Swimming is the only sport that has brought more Universiade
glory to Canada over the years with 95 podiums.
“We are excited to bring such a large team to the Universiade
and seek to further improve on recent past team performances at
this prestigious international event,” said Team Canada and
University of Manitoba track and field head coach Claude Berube.
“The level of Canadian athletes in Shenzhen will be very high
as some will also compete afterwards at the world championships. I
am also pleased with the strong representation on the women’s
and men’s teams in both track and field events.”
The Canadian squad is comprised of 19 female and 18 male athletes
including 21 from universities competing in CIS, 13 schools that
compete in the NCAA or NAIA, as well as three from Canadian
colleges.
Eleven team members have previous Universiade experience, four
represented Canada at the 2009 IAAF world championships in
athletics in Berlin and seven wore the Maple Leaf at the 2010
Commonwealth Games in India.
The Universiade track and field competition is scheduled for August
16-21.
NOTE: Heather Steacy’s older brother, Jim, competed at the
2008 Olympics in Beijing and was Canada’s flag-bearer for the
opening ceremonies at the 2009 Summer Universiade in Serbia, where
he claimed silver in the hammer throw...
CANADA’S
ATHLETICS GOLD MEDALS AT THE SUMMER UNIVERSIADE
(5):
2009 (Belgrade, Serbia): Women’s 4x400m (C. Muir, A. Nelson,
K. Hyacinthe, E. Akinsule)
1983 (Edmonton, Canada): Guillaume Leblanc, 20km race walk
1983 (Edmonton, Canada): David Steen, Decathlon
1975 (Rome, Italy): Bishop Dolegiewicz, Shot Put
1965 (Budapest, Hungary): Bill Crothers, 800m
SOURCE:
Athletics Canada & CIS
