STELLARTON, N.S.
Pictou County is again sending a healthy contingent to the Royal Canadian Legion National Youth Track and Field Championships.
A total of eight members of Pictou County Athletics (PCA) made the provincial team based on results at the Athletics NS Legion Team Trials and Open Meet on July 6-7.
Nova Scotia will be comprised of 38 athletes in total when the national competition take place starting Aug. 9, and 22 of them are from Pictou, Colchester and Antigonish counties.
“When we first started thinking a few months ago about who might make the provincial team, I thought that maybe four or five would make it,” said Pat Carty, one of the coaches with PCA.
“Having eight athletes from our club is pretty awesome.”
Held at the Pioneer Coal track in Stellarton, the competition attracted more than 225 track and field athletes of all ages. Those competing in the U16 and U18 Categories chased standards to be named to the 2019 Nova Scotia/Nunavut Legion Track and Field Team.
Carty said a couple of the locals who qualified seemed a bit talen aback when they learned they had qualified for the provincial squad.
“I won’t tell you who,” he said, “but a couple of them were like ‘I made the team?’”
Legion nationals will be held in Sydney, Cape Breton.
“I look to the Royal Canadian Legion and the athletes with equal pride for their dedication they put forth each summer. It is my hope that we can forge the bonds of friendship, among athletes and legionnaires alike,” provincial head coach Steve Morley said in a release.
The following locals qualified for Legion nationals:
• Eilidh Cameron of Scotsburn (high jump)
• Keighan DeCoff of Frasers Mountain (shot put, discus)
• Cara MacDonald of New Glasgow (300m and 800m sprinter)
• Matthew MacLeod of MacLellan’s Brook (javelin)
• Allie Sandluck of Thorburn (middle distance running)
• Gabrielle Smith of Stellarton (javelin)
• Mattea Miller-Evans of Merigomish (high jump)
• John Luke Taylor of Stellarton (sprinter)
• Alec Bates of New Glasgow (U16 high jumper)
