McGill to host Olympians at Canada's largest track meet, Jan. 29-30

MONTREAL - McGill sprinter Hank Palmer of Pierrefonds, Que., will be among a half-dozen national team athletes to participate at the 15th annual McGill Team Challenge track and field meet this weekend at Tomlinson Fieldhouse, located in the McGill University Sports Centre at 475 Pine Avenue West.

The two-day event, scheduled for Friday (Jan. 29) and Saturday (Jan. 30), is billed as the largest indoor track meet in Canada, and is expected to feature 18 university teams and more than 600 participating athletes. The CIS national championships, slated to be hosted by Windsor, March 11-13, will have more participating schools but fewer athletes than the McGill Team Challenge.

Tickets for the event will be sold at the door and cost $10 for adults. Students and seniors are $4 and hildren 12-and-under are free.

"It is definitely one of the strongest indoor meets of the season and clearly the Canadian flagship meet for the semester," said Dennis Barrett, in his 25th year as head coach at McGill. "We have nine participating teams from the Ontario University Athletics conference, four from the Atlantic region and four from Quebec. It will be a great opportunity for athletes to qualify for the Nationals."

The Friday night schedule features a clash of the titans in the men's 60-metre dash with Palmer, an Olympian and public relations major at McGill, who recently set a school record in the 60 metres, running a time of 6.79 seconds. He will be chasing both the meet record (6.75) and the Fieldhouse mark (6.56).

Palmer will go up against Ben Youssef Meité, the 2009 CIS silver-medalist in the 60m (6.66), who also won gold in both the 100m (10.15) and 200m at the Francophone Games in Beirut last fall.

Also in the mix is McGill's Andrew Hamilton, a former Alouettes running back from Montreal, who was an all-star with the McGill Redmen football team last fall and has been clocked at 4.38 in the 40-yard dash.

The women's division will be highlighted by a special 60-metre invitational race. Among the high-profile sprinters registered for the event is Toyin Olupona of Orillia, Ont., the 2009 Canadian champion in the 100m dash and a training partner of Olympian Priscilla Lopes-Schliep.

National team members expected to challenge Olupona in the sprint include Genevieve Thibault, the 2007 CIS 60m champion from Quebec City who owns the Fieldhouse record (7.39 seconds), Adrienne Power (7.53 seed time) of Halifax, N.S., Kimberly Hyacinthe (silver, 200m at 2009 Francophone Games; gold in 4x400 at 2009 FISU Games) of Terrebonne, Que., and Annie LeBlanc, a 17-year-old from Repentigny, Que., who has posted some impressive times and competed last summer at the IAAF world youth championships in Italy.

Other national team athletes registered for the meet include Adam Kunkel (300m) of Paisley, Ont., Marie-Ève Dugas (60m hurdles) of Laval, Que.,  Esther Akinsulie (600m) of Ottawa and pole vaulter Ariane Beaumont-Courteau of Montreal, who will be chasing her personal indoor best of 4.17m.

Her brother, Maxime Beaumont-Courteau, is a medical student at McGill and will be looking to shatter his school record of 4.61m in the men's pole vault.

Among the other McGill athletes to watch is freshman Justin "Jus Fly" Darlington of Montreal, who will challenge his school record in the men's high jump (2.03m). A relative newcomer to track and field, Darlington is better known as arguably the world's best slam-dunk artist.

Other McGill athletes of note are senior Ally McPhee of St. Margaret's Bay, N.S., and sophomore Charlène Puel, a distance runner from Nice, France. The former is the daughter of ex-Montreal Canadiens player Mike McPhee, while the latter's father Claude Puel, is the head coach of Olympique Lyon, perennial soccer champions in France.

"It looks like a rock-em-sock-em affair," said CIS track and field guru Bob Vigars, the retired long-time coach of the Western Ontario Mustangs.  "The McGill Team Challenge has become the destiny of choice for CIS track teams in eastern Canada, making it without question the top indoor meet in the nation during the regular season. I'm happy to say that my Mustangs teams in the early years played a small part in the ultimate making of this juggernaut competition."

University teams registered for the meet include Concordia, Dalhousie, Guelph, Laval, Lakehead, McGill, McMaster, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Queen's, Saint Mary's, Sherbrooke, St. Francis Xavier, Waterloo, Western Ontario, Windsor and York.


2010 McGILL TEAM CHALLENGE MEET SCHEDULE

(REVISED)

Friday, January 29, Track Events / Horaire de Piste

18:00  60m                        (F)       Heats/Vague

18:15  60m                        (M)      Heats/Vagues

18:50  60m (Invitational)     (M)      Heats/Vagues

19:00 1000m                      (F)       Timed Section Chrono

19:20 1000m                      (M)      Timed Section Chrono

19:40 60m (B & A)              (F)       Final(e)

19:50 60m (B & A)              (M)      Final (e)

19:55 60m (Invitational)      (M)      Final (e)

20:05 3000m                      (F)       Timed Section Chrono

20:50 3000m                      (M)      Timed Section Chrono

21:35 4x200m                    (M)      Timed Section Chrono

21:50 4x200m                    (F)       Timed Section Chrono

22:00 4x800m                    (F)       Timed Section Chrono

22:15 4x800m                    (M)      Timed Section Chrono

Field Events / Evenements des Champs

14:30  Weight Throw         (M)      Final(e) (Group A & B)

16:00  High Jump              (F)       Final(e)

16:15  Weight Throw         (F)      Final(e) (Group A & B)

17:30 Triple Jump             (M)      Final(e)

19:00  Pole Vault              (M)      Final(e)

19:30  Triple Jump            (F)       Final(e) (Group A & B)

20:35  Shot Put                (M)      Final(e) (Group A & B)

Saturday, January 30, 2010 Track Events / Horaire de Piste

09:00  60m Hurdles            (M)      Pentathlon

09:15  60m Hurdles            (F)       Pentathlon

09:25  60m Hurdles/Haies   (F)       Heats

09:35  60m Hurdles/Haies   (M)      Heats

12:00  Lunch Break

12:30  60m Hurdles/Haies   (M)      Final(e)

12:35  60m Hurdles/Haies   (F)       Final(e)

12:40  600m                      (F)       Timed Section Chrono

13:10 600m                       (M)      Timed Section Chrono

13:40 300m                      (F)       Timed Section Chrono

14:05 300m                      (M)      Timed Section Chrono

14:50 1500m                    (F)       Timed Section Chrono

15:30 1500m                    (M)      Timed Section Chrono

16:05 4x400m                  (F)       Timed Section Chrono

16:20 4x400m                  (M)      Timed Section Chrono

17:05 1000m                    (M)      Pentathlon

17:15 800m                      (M)      Pentathlon

Field Events / Evenements des Champs

09:40  Long Jump              (M)      Pentathlon

10:10 High Jump               (F)       Pentathlon

11:00  Long Jump              (F)      Final(e) (Group A & B)

12:15 Shot Put                 (M)      Pentathlon (Group A & B)

13:00  High Jump              (M)      Final(e)

13:00  Pole Vault               (F)      Final(e)

13:30 Long Jump              (M)      Final(e) (Group A & B)

13:45 Shot Put                 (F)       Final(e) (Group A & B)

15:00 Shot Put                 (F)       Pentathlon

15:00 High Jump              (M)      Pentathlon

15:30 Long Jump             (F)       Pentathlon

SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
McGill Athletics & Recreation
514-398-7012
earl.zukerman [at] mcgill.ca