Canadian Track and Field Trials | An unexpected Quebec vintage

While Quebec hockey was very discreet at the NHL draft in Las Vegas, Quebec athletics confirmed its rebirth at the Canadian Trials, which end Sunday at the Claude-Robillard sports complex in Montreal.

Athletics Canada (AC) will not announce its team until Tuesday, in conjunction with the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). A few names could be added on July 7 as World Athletics (WA), the international federation, reallocates remaining quotas.

However, it is already a given that Quebec’s representation will be significantly higher than that of the five previous editions of the Olympic Games, approaching the glory days of Bruny Surin and the half-dozen representatives from the province in Atlanta in 1996.

The places of Audrey Leduc (100, 200, 4 x 200 m), Charles Philibert-Thiboutot (1500 m) and Jean-Simon Desgagnés (3000 m steeplechase) are assured or almost. The young Marie-Éloïse Leclair seems to have cemented her position for the 4 x 100 m relay with her bronze medal Friday evening.

Still 41^e out of 42 in the WA 5000m world rankings, Thomas Fafard is anxiously awaiting the closing of the qualification window on Sunday at 6 p.m. (EDT). His position has not been threatened since his silver medal Thursday evening.

The Swiss and German championships took place on Friday without his pursuers being able to improve their fate.

“I don’t want to celebrate in advance, to tell myself that it’s in the bag, but we are closer to being selected than we were,” rejoiced the rider from Repentigny, who doesn’t really like hearing about his family’s travel plans to the City of Lights…

A revenge to take

Simone Plourde is another one knocking on the door. The 23-year-old Montrealer occupies number 40^e rank for 45 places available in Paris. In the rain, conditions that please her, she easily secured her ticket to the final by winning her semi-final heat in 4 min 15.66 s, Saturday evening.

Stressed? “A little bit, but I feel like I’m in a position to qualify,” said the lone Canadian from the Nike Union Athletics Club, based in Oregon. “It’s not like I’m not ranked. We keep doing what we’ve been doing all season and it should be okay.”

In the final, Sunday at noon, Plourde will try to win a first national title. Her main rival will be Ontario’s Lucia Stafford, holder of the Olympic standard and first in the second wave ahead of Florence Caron. Jessy Lacourse, from the Université Laval (UL) club, will also be in the game.

Philibert-Thiboutot also dominated his 1500m semi-final without suffering, taking charge of animating the crowd after crossing the line in 3 min 41.45 s.

The 33-year-old middle distance runner is determined to avenge his second-place finish last year behind British Columbia’s Kiran Lumb, who led the other semi-final in 3:42.45.

Aiyanna Stiverne is another Olympic contender in the 4x400m relay, with whom she won bronze at the last World Relays last month. The Miami native is coached by Laval’s Ronald Morency and represents the Saint-Laurent Sélect club. Having narrowly qualified for the final the day before, she saved her situation by finishing sixth in the final on Saturday night. Clearly unsatisfied, she declined to grant an interview after her race. Perhaps she is worried about her status for the Olympics?

Lapointe, an “engine”

Fafard dreams of accompanying Philibert-Thiboutot to Paris with Desgagnés, the other member of the dynamic trio from Quebec. Their coach Félix-Antoine Lapointe has been a key “driving force” in the resurgence of athletics in the province, said Robert Demers, general director of the Fédération québécoise d’athlétisme (FQA) since August 2023.

A former pilot for the UL Rouge et Or, Lapointe became in 2018 the first head coach of the Quebec teams and the Provincial Centre of Excellence located at PEPS and specializing in endurance events.

This appointment was a key part of the FQA’s strategic plan, which aimed, among other things, to improve Quebec’s representation on the international scene.

“It attracted everyone from the middle distance there,” explained Demers. This additional support, which is not necessarily available in clubs and university teams, allows you to move to another level. It had an emulation effect and showed that it was possible to compete and win university championships among men, for example. »

This initiative was made possible thanks to a partnership with UL, Excellence sportive Québec Lévis and Athletics Canada, whose senior management was looking for a way to improve Quebec representation in its programs.

“They found the weak presence of Quebecers in the national team totally abnormal,” recalled Demers, who was vice-president of the board of directors of the Canadian federation at the time.

In 2021, walker Mathieu Bilodeau was the only fleurdelisé representative in Tokyo. “We will wait for the exact number on Tuesday, but whether it is six or seven for Paris, it is a big progression,” agreed Félix-Antoine Lapointe on Saturday. It’s a matter of great pride. »

The fact that a majority of these athletes train in the province is another factor of satisfaction for the coach.

“It shows that our impact is not minimal. Even when they go into exile and go to the NCAA or elsewhere, we can say that we had an impact on their development when they were young. Our initiatives pay off. There are never any guarantees in high-level sport. You can invest resources in coaches, support teams, there is never any certainty that it will produce Olympians. The environment is competitive.”

This critical mass of top athletes helps to solidify the expertise of all the stakeholders who gravitate around it, insisted Lapointe.

In the fall of 2022, the creation of an AC high-performance center focused on sprints in Montreal was another accelerator that Audrey Leduc took advantage of. Fabrice Akué, who led it at UL, is now the head coach.

“The particularity of the French fact was considered by [le directeur de la haute performance] Simon Nathan, mentioned Robert Demers. We said to ourselves that the world does not necessarily go to the Toronto pole for the sprint or to Victoria for the middle distance. That put a bit of a limit on those who had some reservations about going there. »

The FQA does not want to stop there. It will therefore set up development centres with dedicated provincial coaches for the combined events in Sherbrooke, the jumps and hurdles in Montreal and the throws in Quebec City. New regional development officers also have the mandate to support local stakeholders to help clubs or create new ones and give impetus to the construction and development of plateaus.

Under the 2020-2025 strategic plan, the FQA was aiming for four representatives in Paris this summer. If all goes well, there will be seven in Paris in a month, a vintage that was almost unexpected at the beginning of the year.

“At that time, if we had had six, I would have been very happy,” admitted DG Demers. “It’s not a large number, but when you don’t already have many, that’s a big increase! Ultimately, we aspire to have representation equivalent to our demographic weight.”

Thomas Fafard agrees. “It’s not going to get any worse, but we can’t be satisfied with that. We rebalance things compared to what we had before. It’s the least we can do to have representation on the international scene. »