BELL TRIALS 22 PREVIEW: Mile-high clash in the pole vault, mid-distance rivalries to highlight 2022 Bell Canadian Track and Field Championship

The 2022 Bell Canadian Track and Field Championships are shaping up to be the biggest and best athletics competition that Canada has seen in years.

The event, which runs from June 22 to 26 at MacLeod Athletic Park in the Township of Langley, B.C., includes national championships for Senior, U20, Para Athletics and Combined Events athletes, and will serve as Trials for the World Athletics Championships.

A total of 1648 able-bodied and para-athletes are registered across senior and U20 categories. The action begins on Wednesday. To learn more about the schedule, start lists, and more, visit our event page here, and catch the LIVE stream here.

For now, here are eight key storylines to follow as you prepare to take in the weekend.

1- Mile-high clash in women’s pole vault

After setting the Canadian pole vault record at 4.82 metres in the summer of 2019, Alysha Newman became the centre of attention at pole vaulting competitions across Canada for many of the following months. But 2021 was less kind to the Toronto-based athlete: her career was temporarily derailed after sustaining a concussion, as she failed to land a single jump at the Tokyo Olympics. This year, however, Newman is back and has jumped to a season’s best of 4.70 metres, which puts her dead even with her main competitor, Anicka Newell of Saskatchewan. In competing for gold, the two women are poised to give fans a vaulting masterclass.

2- 800m rivalries

The women and the men’s 800m finals are shaping up to pit two sets of familiar rivals against each other. B.C. athlete and defending national champion Lindsey Butterworth is the fastest Canadian woman over 800m in the competition months (PB: 1:59.19), and the fifth fastest in the country’s history. Yet, her seed time boasts barely a half-second lead on Maddy Kelly’s 1:59.71. Kelly, the Toronto-based athlete and 2019 Canadian 800m champion, settled for bronze at last year’s championship, though both women represented Canada in Tokyo. 

Another set of Tokyo 800m teammates, Marco Arop and Brandon McBride, will face off in Langley, with their personal bests sitting at a minuscule 0.06 seconds from each other. McBride has the faster time of the two (1:43.20 – it’s also the Canadian record), but Arop has run faster this year, and has taken home a gold medal at the Birmingham Diamond League.

3- Riech, Olympic T38 1,500m champion set to take on able-bodied field

Nate Riech is showing that his massive breakthrough in 2021 was no fluke. The athlete based in Victoria, B.C. built on his Paralympic gold medal-winning summer of last year by droppingseason’s bests of 3:48.68 in the 1,500m and 1:52.00 in the 800m earlier this Spring. Riech is slated to compete in the able-bodied field, where he will try to lower his 1,500m personal best of 3:47.89. 

Liam Stanley, meanwhile, will race in the T37 1,500m, and try to become Canada’s second para-athlete under the 4:00 minute barrier. His best sits at 4:03.25.

4- Metivier chases down Kunkel

On the 400m hurdles scene, it’s the been the Year of Malik Metivier. The 23-year-old collegiate athlete competing for Texas Tech became the second Canadian ever to break 49 seconds in the event, when he stopped the clock at 48.89 earlier this month in the heats of the NCAA championship. The Etobicoke, Ont. native went on the finish second in the competition, and is now within striking distance of Adam Kunkel’s 15-year-old national record of 48.24.

5- Mitton and Rogers to uphold throws dominance

Sarah Mitton and Camryn Rogers have tons in common: they’re both throwers (Mitton does shot put and Rogers specializes in the hammer throw), they both represented Canada at the 2021 Olympics, and each have a stranglehold on their respective events this year. Mitton set a new Canadian record in the shotput of 19.58 in May, becoming the second woman after Brittany Crew to throw over 19 metres. No less, Mitton has reached the elusive mark six times since January.

Rogers, who co-held the Canadian hammer throw record of 75.73 with Sultana Frizzel, tossed for 76.46 metres in May, and then for 77.67 metres in June to now be ahead of any other Canadian women in history by nearly two full metres.

The two women have one more thing in common: a competitor not far behind. Crew will be trying to wrestle the shot put title away from Mitton. Meanwhile, Jillian Weir, Rogers’ teammate in Tokyo, will keep the Richmond, B.C. native on her toes in the hammer’s circle.

6- The three-horse steeple race

Earlier this month, Canada’s best male 3000m steeplechaser Matt Hughes announced his retirement. Losing a stalwart such as Hughes - a Canadian record holder and sixth-place finisher at the Tokyo Olympics – could be enough to make the barriered event feel flat. But a trio of young middle-distance runners are set to make the steeple more exciting than ever before. Vancouver’s John Gay is expected to take on Ryan Smeeton of Calgary and Jean-Simon Desgagnés of Québec, in a reboot of their three-way rivalry that dates back to the 2021 Olympic trials. Gay, with his seed time of 8:16.99, has four and six seconds edges on Smeeton and Desgagnés, respectively.

7- Papaconstantinou back on her grind

Marissa Papaconstantinou, the defending paralympic bronze medalist in the 100m, sits just on the outside of two major barriers in the T64 100m and 200m: those of 13 and 27 seconds. The 23-year-old is having a good start to her season, having won the 100m and 200m at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix events in Nottwil, and then finishing second and fourth at the same two events at the Grand Prix’s stop in Paris. The sprinter now heads to Langley with an eye on breaking her personal bests of 13.07 and 27.08.

8 - Lovett and Nettey to leap for gold

The women’s long jump and the men’s high jump are sure to evoke feelings of awe, as jumpers Christabel Nettey an Django Lovett are set to deliver world-class performances. Nettey is returning from a string of competitions in the United States and then Europe, where she jumped two centimetres from her personal best and national record of 6.99 metres. Lovett, meanwhile, won gold at the Birmingham Diamond League and is jumping near his personal best of 2.29 metres. A Langley, B.C. native, Lovett will be jumping in front of his home crowd.

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