About 90 young athletes attended an open audition for potential Olympic competitors at the Langley Events Centre on Sunday.
The Langley event was the first of five regional qualifiers in B.C. that aim to uncover young, untapped athletic talent.
Kurt Innes, director of talent development at Canadian Sport Institute Pacific, described the RBC Training Ground Podium Search as a “basic athlete identification event” with “very basic performance tests” that include a vertical jump, running sprint, strength test and 20 metre shuttle run endurance test.
“Over the next six weeks we’re going to hopefully see upwards of 700 kids across the province,” Innes said.
As 18-year-old Langley competitor Alexander Savage, went through the tests, father Michael Savage watched from the sidelines.
The son seemed relaxed and confident, telling the Times that his goal was to “just go out and have some fun.”
“When your kid has a certain amount of talent you hope he can go a little further and that he’s worthy of a world class designation,” the father said. “I’m excited to see what he does.”
He cheered his son on as Alexander outlasted about a dozen other competitors in the 20-metre shuttle run endurance test, where the time allowed for each lap gets shorter and shorter as the test progresses.
Savage — who has previously won gold in the long jump at both the BC high school track and field championships as well as at the Canadian Legion national championships — won’t know if he made the cut until February.
Upcoming qualifiers are planned for Prince George at the Charles Jago Sports Centre (Jan. 21), Burnaby at Fortius Sport and Health (Feb. 5), Kamloops at the Tournament Capital Centre (Feb. 12), and Victoria at the Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities (Feb. 19).
The best 100 will be selected for the regional finals at the Richmond oval in March.
There are four other regional finals in Alberta, the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec.
Top athletes from each regional final in Canada will receive a trip to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
This is the sixth year of “Podium Search” a series of one-day athlete identification camps conducted by RBC Training Ground, a talent identification and athlete funding program designed to uncover athletes with Olympic potential and provide them with the resources they need.
For more information, click here or email kinnes@csipacific.ca.
