© Copyright – 2015 – Athletics Illustrated

Edmonton, Alberta, dubbed TrackTown Canada for summer 2015 is hosting a total of three major track meets  including the Canadian Track and Field Championships that already took place from July 2nd to the 5th at Foote Field.

There was also today’s final National Track League meet of the 2015 season, full results are available here.

And finally, starting on July 31st, the 2015 Edmonton Junior Pan American Championships take place, schedule and results are available here.

Also, the five-day Cali IAAF World Youth Track and Field Championships will start on July 15th, from Cali, Colombia. Schedule and results are here.

For track and field fans that are awaiting the first events of the 2015 Toronto Pan Am/Para Pan Am Games, TrackTown Canada provided a bit of a tonic this weekend with the final meet of the 2015 National Track League.

Canadians Derek Drouin and Mike Mason went 1-2 in the high jump event, both tying for first at 2.33-metres, which surpasses the event record of 2.32m, held by Drouin, who also owns the Canadian record of 2.40m and is one of the best high jumpers in the world at this time. Bahamian Trevor Barry finished third with a height of 2.25m.

For those who haven’t had enough of the rapid rising Fiona Benson of Langley, BC, she raced again today, this time she finished second to America’s Maggie Vessey in the time of 2:00.55 to Vessey’s 2:00.18. Vessey expanded her lead fairly early, possibly to remove the threat from Benson taking her down in the final stretch with a spring finish, if so, it paid off, but the hard-charging Benson did make the race interesting as she closed the gap by about two seconds over the final 200m. Annie Leblanc finished third in the time of 2:03.43.

The men’s 800m field was interesting with the rapidly returning (to old form) Nick Symmonds who has run as fast as 1:44.53 this season – not quite as fast as his personal best, but still showing improvement. Today, he did not appear to have the finish required to compete at that level. Perhaps he is saving himself for greater competition this summer. He finished in fifth place in the time of 1:47.53. Fellow American Duane Solomon won in the time of 1:46.13. In fact Americans went 1-2-3 in this race with Eric Sowinski finishing in second in 1:46.34; he was followed in by Mark Wieczorek in 1:46.73. Top Canadian was Geoff Harris of Halifax who finished in seventh place in the time of 1:49.71.

American Sanya Richards-Ross competed in two events on the day, first the 400m, finishing first in the time of 50.47, which for awhile threatened the meet record set last year in the time of 50.43. She then raced the 100m finishing in fifth position in the time of 11.28.

The men’s 400m featured some top names for the distance including Jeremy Wariner, who continues to work on his comeback from injury. The race was won by fellow American Lashawn Merrit in the time of 44.36. Wariner finished in fourth position, over one second back of Merrit. Second place was Grenadian Bralon Taplin and third went to American Aldrich Bailey. They finished in 45.28 and 45.38, respectively.

Wallace Spearmon continues his comeback from a strange abdominal injury. He continues his improvement as today he took the meet record with a first place finish of 20.21. Miguel Francis of Antigua and Barbuda finished second in 20.41, while Rasheed Dwyer from Jamaica finished in third in the time of 20.46.

Many of the athletes who competed today will be competing in the Pan American Games in Toronto. The athletics portion of the games begins on July 18th and continues onto the 26th.

Full results can be found here:

800m Women

Finals

1 Maggie Vessey               USA                   2:00.16!
2 Fiona Benson                 Canada                 2:00.55!
3 Annie Leblanc               Canada                 2:03.43
4 Megan Malasarte             USA                   2:03.86
5 Lea Wallace                 USA                   2:03.89
6 Kimarra McDonald             Jamaica               2:04.02
7 Rachel Francois             Canada                2:04.23
8 Phoebe Wright               USA                   2:04.27
9 Sarah Brown                 USA                   2:05.96
10 Abby Regan                   Australia             2:06.73
— Monica Hargrove             USA                      DNF