The Yukon Schools’ Athletic Association Track and Field Meet was a little more field than track this year.
With the track at F.H. Collins Secondary - the only track in Whitehorse - ripped up this spring by construction of the new school, meet organizers needed a plan.
Their solution: paint a track on the lower grass field next to the old one that is now a dirt field full of excavators.
The result was remarkable. Though it was still a grass field, the track was expertly made; the lines were straight and the curves perfectly rounded.
RELATED:See full results here.
Dozens of man-hours were put into creating it for Wednesday’s meet.
“The track was designed and built by (Athletics Yukon coach) Don White,” said F.H. Collins organizer James Shaw. “He went out and measured the entire track and then he mowed three of the lanes and the edge of the outside lanes so we knew where to paint. He strung the track out so we have these nice straight lines and the soccer people were gracious enough to come and paint it for us.”
“Thanks very much to the wonderful staff here at F.H. Collins because regardless of the inconvenience they are going through they managed to pull something spectacular together,” said YSAA president Marc Senecal. “They spent considerable amount of time and energy to get a wonderful track meet put together on the limited area that they have.”
The track will be used again on Friday for the first elementary school track meet in well over a decade. Five elementary schools have registered to compete.
Over 150 athletes from Whitehorse’s three high schools took part in Wednesday’s meet. Porter Creek Secondary School entered about 35 athletes, Vanier Catholic Secondary School about 20, while hosts F.H. Collins Secondary had about 100 athletes compete. Like in years past, FHC’s big numbers got big results.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com