Yesterday saw the highlight of the IFTA calendar with the Fun in Athletics Ontario Final taking place at the Victoria Park Collegiate Institute in Toronto. The six schools who won their regional competitions from a field of thirty one hopefuls, competed for the 2010 title and the chance to claim the Eveque trophy. Minister of Heath Promotion Hon Margaret Best kindly took time out from her busy schedule to talk to the competitors and open the event. Also a nice surprise ensued as Milt Ottey arranged for some top Canadian Athletes to join the schools as team leaders. Track stars Tony Sharp, Desi Williams, Ben Johnson, Nikkita Holder, Tabia Charles joined CFL Argos stars Samuel Joseph and Obed Cétoute to help coax the best performance from each school.
The first race of the day was won by Lawfield girls and it set the tone for an exciting two hours of noisy action culminating with Lawfield winning both the girls and boys competitions to clinch the overall title for the 3rd year running. This is quite an accomplishment. Well done to all their team members because this team has set a very high standard for all future teams to aspire too.
However, this year wasn’t an easy victory for the Hamilton school, especially in the boys competition. Mary Shadd clearly dominated the tack races with an impressive four 1st place results out of a possible seven. At the half way stage Milt Ottey commented: “I don’t think Lawfield are going to get this one”, but as the field event results came in a strong performance from Lawfield in the throws section and valiant efforts from Terry Fox and Alexandra Graham Bell in the jumps events pushed Mary Shadd back in the overall standings, leaving them 2nd place a tantalizingng 4 points behind the leaders. Alexandra Graham Bell finished 3rd, Terry fox 4th, Marie of the Incarnation 5th and Humber Summit 6th
In the girls competition it was a different story with the Lawfield team dominating both the track and field sections to finish an impressive 48 points clear of the second place team Mary Shadd. With Lawfield out in front, the other teams were left to duke it out in a very close battle for 2nd place. Finishing 2nd Mary Shadd were just 2 points clear of Terry Fox in 3rd place, who in turn were just 2 points clear of Alexandra Graham Bell in 4th place! Marie of the Incarnation fished 5th scoring their first win of the day in the Standing Long Jump event and Humber Summit finished 6th.
So what is the secret of Lawfield’s success? Milt Ottey thinks he knows the answer. He explained “I love the way this school has fully embraced the program. They bring our team into their school at least 3 times each year and they practice regularly on their own Fun in Athletics equipment so the result of this hard work is now showing up in their performance. These guys are so organized they even have their own press team who report back to the other students with video footage at their school assembly!"
IFTA would like to thank all the teams, teachers, star athletes and VIPs who attended and also the host school for allowing us the use of their gym. The Final was a great end to this season’s Fun in Athletics competition program and as the weather gets better we look forward to seeing you out there for some fun Agility Challenges and Soccer Skills during spring and summer.
The IFTA Fun in Athletics program is supported by The Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and is delivered in partnership with Athletics Ontario