RCAF member races in WMA Championships in Poland

News Article / May 24, 2019

By Major Serge Faucher

More than 4,000 athletes from 82 countries converged on the city of Toruń, Poland, for the 8th World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships, held March 24-30, 2019. While Canada had a small contingent of 54 athletes, we did very well. Canada finished 16th overall in the medal count, with seven golds, nine silvers, and five bronzes, including several provincial, national, and even a few world records by some immensely talented athletes.

While I had my best six months of training preparation in more than 10 years of racing in track & field, I arrived in Poland still feeling sick after contracting the flu a few weeks earlier. This unfortunately derailed my training and health, affecting my first race (400m), where I felt sluggish and flat. I managed to run it in a relatively slow 57.33 seconds, which did not allow me to advance to the semi-finals.

My next event was done at an equally pedestrian pace, resulting in my slowest 60m to date -- 8.12 seconds. Again, I did not advance to the next round. Following this, and with a few more days of rest, I managed a decent 200m time of 25.55 seconds in the qualification round. This was fast enough to advance to the Semis the next day, where I came in at 25.63 seconds, good for 13th place overall.

On the last day of competition, I “stepped down” to help the M45 (age group 45-49) relay team in the 4 X 200m. We ended up finishing in 6th place out of 11 countries, with a time of 1:41.81 minutes.

Despite being “under the weather” for this track meet, it was a wonderful experience, and it renewed my drive to work harder for the next age group (M55) before the outdoor season, where I will be the “youngest” athlete once again, when I turn 55 in June!