SASKATOON – Most track and field athletes only get one chance to compete for a conference title on home turf. This weekend that privilege belongs to the University of Saskatchewan Huskies as they host the 2016 Canada West championships.
“Being able to run in front of my friends and family is just fantastic,” said sprinter Graham Black. “We’ve travelled so much this year that it’s really nice to kind of showcase the skills that we’ve been working on this year, and just having everybody out here, the energy’s going to be awesome.”
“Having six schools here from Western Canada, I think it’s going to make for a really good competition. We’re going to have amazing talent here as well and we get to showcase that in front of the city,” added hurdler Astrid Nyame.
Black and Nyame are among the 49 Huskies competing at this year’s Can West meet. Nyame is looking to build off the silver medal she won in the 60-metre hurdles in 2015.
“I’ve trained really hard this season and I would not be doing myself justice if I didn’t think that the training and all the work that I’ve put in isn’t gold medal performance (worthy), so for sure I’d like to stand on the podium,” she said.
Meanwhile Black is the defending champion in the men’s 300 metres, an event in which he is currently ranked number one in the CIS. But he knows reputations don’t win races.
“Honestly I don’t even think about it. It’s a brand new season. You’re only as good as you are on the day of the meet so last year’s event doesn’t even register to me,” he said.
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While most CIS meets are individually focussed, with athletes trying to achieve national qualifying standards, the Canada West championships are all about team performance. The emphasis on points means every result matters and the drama builds with each event over the course of the two-day meet.
“We train in training groups, like the high jumpers train together, the long jumpers together, and it’s this that brings the whole team together,” said Huskies head coach Joanne McTaggart.
“The fun thing about university athletics is that we compete for those points, and kind of in that context we turn it into a team thing, and it’s kind of nice to have your team standing on the sideline cheering for you,” Nyame said.
The Huskies last won a Canada West men’s title in 2013. The women’s last banner came the year before that. They’d love nothing more than to sweep the titles in front of a home crowd this weekend.
“There’s more on the line for sure,” Black said. “You always want to win the team banner at home and if I can contribute to that by winning the 300 metres, I’m definitely excited for that opportunity.”
The action gets underway from the Saskatoon Field House Friday at 2 p.m. CT.