BY: JELANI GRANT
Athletics Canada, the governing body for all Track and Field in Canada, will be hosting the North American, Central American Athletic Associations (NACAC) Track and Field Championships at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium. This international event will showcase Canada’s best athletes competing against the best across North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
There will be dozens of Olympic and World Championship medalists competing, and even a few World Record holders. Athletics Canada has selected 58 athletes to compete against high calibre athletes coming from all over the North-Eastern hemisphere. The meet will run from August 10th to 12th at Varsity Stadium with 600 athletes from 31 countries arriving to compete in more than 40 events on the track and in the field.
With 58 athletes ready to compete, Canada has no shortage of young talent who are prepared to compete for nothing less than medals. One long jumper from Brampton is expecting to outdo his jump of 7.80m at the 2018 Canadian Track & Field Championships. Steve Kerr is the father, and one of the first coaches, of Jared Kerr who is gearing up to break a record. Steve said they began training when Jared was 10 years old and since then he has watched him soar. “I was a track & field person…so I just started to take them through jumping jacks, burpees and stepping up the little curb outside of our house which seems like its nothing but try doing it 600 times,” Steve said.
Continuing a consistent level of discipline throughout the years, he expects his son to not only win in this upcoming meet but also break the record for long jump. Now an Olympic-hopeful for 2020, Jared is using the lessons his father passed down to him to break records. Jared is now being coached by Olympic legend Carl Lewis and after his leap of 8.14m set a new American Athletic Conference record in May, there is really no telling what he could accomplish next. That 8.14m is the fourth-best jump in Canadian history, putting Jared only six centimetres away from the Canadian record set by Edrick Floreal in 1991.
High calibre track & field championships such as these being rare in Toronto, Steve said this will be a special occasion for many reasons. Including the 8.06m record that should be broken, friends and family travelling to meets Jared competes in can be challenging. Though he is not used to seeing all of his loved ones in the stands, Steve said his son has not shown any anxiety leading up to his event. “As a matter of fact it’s the opposite, Jared is excited to compete right here in the city,” Steve said. At the young age of 23, Steve said his son has at least two Olympics to look forward to following the NACAC championships.
Aaron Brown will also be competing for a medal after he took home two gold medals at the 2018 Canadian Track and Field championships including the 200m with a time of 20.17. He also ran a personal-best 19.98 seconds in the 200 metres earlier this season at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway. Though Brown hasn’t raced in Toronto since the 2015 Pam Am Games he said he is, “excited for my friends and family to be able to watch me run. They always hear about it, but almost never get to see it.”
Crystal Emmanuel, also from Toronto, is expected to dominate after nearly beating the 200m record at the Canadian Track & Field Championships. The women’s 200m meet record is 22.64 and Emmanuel pulled away with 60m left and won the gold medal with a time of 22.74. Keep in mind her personal best is 22.50.
Made up of nations in North America, the Caribbean and Central America, NACAC was founded in 1988 and is one of six area associations on the IAAF. The first inaugural NACAC Championships took place in San Salvador in 2007, featuring more than 300 athletes from 26 countries.
Following carnival weekend, there will be a number of street exhibitions, athlete intros and live music performances highlighting Toronto’s vibrant Latin American culture. In addition to the minimum prize purse of $160,000 awarded to the top-three finishers in each event, athletes and fans will have a lot to look forward to throughout the entire week.
