Athletics Canada is pleased to reveal the 40-athlete team that will represent the country at the upcoming NACAC Track and Field Championship on August 19 to 21 in Nassau, Bahamas.

Fifteen men and 25 women will represent Canada at the fourth edition of the event, which have not taken place since 2018 because of the pandemic. This year’s roster will feature 13 defending Canadian champions across event groups: it’s a team that Head Coach Glenroy Gilbert calls tough and versatile.

“I think we will compete well down there,” said Gilbert. “We’re sending a squad filled with World Championships competitors. It’s late in the summer, and athletes will have to make good decisions as they prepare, but we’re going to come ready.”

Indeed, 23 athletes on Team Canada’s NACAC roster will also don the Red and White in Eugene for the World Athletics Championships in July. Gilbert said the team’s collective experience on the world stage will play in their favour in the hunt for podiums. In the last edition of these championships, in Toronto in 2018, Canada won three gold, eight silver and ten bronze medals, ultimately finishing third out of 14 participating nations in the medal standings behind just the United States and Jamaica.

A third of this year’s team members are also 2022 Canadian Champions. Noelle Montcalm, a two-time Olympian, is just weeks removed from winning a national title in the 400m hurdles in late June. The 34-year-old from Windsor, Ont. has already raced nine times this summer and, despite the long season, has improved her times by the month. Her schedule in August includes both the NACAC and Commonwealth Games: like many of her teammates, she is preparing for a lengthy summer of competition.

“I had a rough start to the season: I was dealing with Achilles pain and continued to train and race through it, when I just should have taken the rest,” said Montcalm, a finalist in the 400m hurdles at the two most recent NACAC championships, in Toronto in 2018 and in Costa Rica in 2015.

“But I’ve felt like myself in the last month - the secret is being patient, and truthfully recognizing when rest is required in order to make it through a lengthy season. My goal for NACAC is to keep on improving my times and finish the season strong.”

While Montcalm will come to Nassau with plenty of NACAC experience, her teammate Cameron Proceviat will attend these championships for the first time. The 28-year-old had never represented Canada internationally until he broke the national indoor mile record earlier this year. Since then, he was named to Canada’s World Athletics Indoor and Outdoor Championship teams.

“International championships aren’t always going to be guaranteed experiences every year,” said Proceviat. “I left World Indoors a little bit disappointed in my race and realized that I have to take advantage of these opportunities when they come up. Since then, I’ve been able to get in more competitive races and am trying to relearn how to compete at a higher level so that I am ready for anything at these championships meets.”

Team Canada Athletes for the 2022 Nacac Championships

Team Coaches