The Irving Oil Field House in Saint-Jean will host the Canadian Indoor Track and Field Championships for the second consecutive year on Saturday and Sunday. Fans of running, throwing and jumping will have the opportunity to see some of the country’s best athletes at work.

Although the competition is primarily focused on the U20, U18 and U16 age groups, there will still be some older athletes in attendance, including Olympians Bolade Ajomale (60m) from Ontario and Regan Yee (1500m and 3000m) from British Columbia.

The program promises to be particularly interesting in the 60-meter sprint in the M18 division, with Quebecers Nathan Malenfant, Yiming Chen and Brian-Jefferson Milien in the men’s category and Roxane Tedja and Caly Mounkala, also from Quebec, in the girls’ category.

Among the seniors, still in the 60m, it’s important to watch Bolade Ajomale, who recently clocked a time of 6s57, just 12-hundredths of a second off the old Canadian record, owned by Bruny Surin since February 1993.

Also of note is the presence of talented 14-year-old Alexia Jones from Ontario, who already manages to clear the 60m in 7s65. Just to give you an idea, the senior provincial record for New Brunswick is 7s63 and has belonged to Marie-André LeBlanc since 2005.

Other athletes to keep an eye on over the weekend are Nova Scotia’s Jennessa Wolfe (U20) in the high jump and Abby Lewis (U18) in the 1500m and 3000m races, and Ontario’s Banujan Kulainthiran (M18) in the triple jump , Robin Bone (Senior), Pole Vault, Sayanthan Aruljaran (M18), Long Jump, Emma Negri (M16), Hammer Throw and Aakaash Prabu (M16), Shot Put and Hammer Throw.

“It should be a great competition,” said Bill MacMackin, a member of the organizing committee. We have 340 athletes who will be in attendance, which is a lot more than the 200 last year. Although this event is primarily focused on athletes under 20, we still have two Olympians who will be here, Bolade Ajomale and Regan Yee. It will also be exciting to see whether Robin Bone will manage to come close to the Canadian pole vault record.

Also shot putter and hammer thrower Liam Turgeon (Senior), shot putter Audrée LeBlanc (U18), sprinter Anthony Richard (U16), Jack Mellish (U18) and Carys Jacobson (U20), as well as middle distance runner Samuel Lepage (U16), Chance Blackstone (Senior) and Isaac Cull (Senior) will be the main headliners on the provincial stage.

Also note that the organizing committee will be paying tribute to Eldridge Eatman, the former glory of New Brunswick athletics. The latter competed all over the world at the beginning of the last century. He primarily specialized in events from 60 to 130 yards. Eatman even held the Canadian record for 100 yards in 1905. He was inducted into the New Brunswick Hall of Fame in 2016. The ceremony will take place on Saturday afternoon at around 1:30 p.m.

The competitions begin on Saturday morning at 9:30 am with the men’s hammer throw competitions in the various age groups.

The progress of the competitions can be followed on the athletecscanada.tv website.