St Catharines Standard

Mohammed Ahmed looks forward to the Commonwealth Games and a professional running career

MohammedAhmedWisconsinBadgerPictures and article courtesy Bernie Puchalski at the St. Catharines Standard:

Making history wasn’t enough for Mohammed Ahmed.

By winning a bronze medal in the 10,000-metre race and placing fifth in the 5,000 metres at the NCAA track and field championships in Eugene, Ore., the St. Catharines distance runner became only the second University of Wisconsin runner to garner First Team All-America honours in the two events at the same NCAA championships.

The results capped a great career for the Wisconsin male athlete of the year candidate. The St. Catharines Collegiate alumnus earned eight All-America honours during his five years — five on the track and three in cross country. The Big Ten record holder in the 10,000 metres helped Wisconsin win four Big Ten cross-country crowns, three Big Ten track titles and the 2011 NCAA cross-country championship.

All that is well and good for the 2012 Olympian and ninth-place finisher at the 2013 world championships, but he leaves university without achieving his goal. More…

 

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Zone 4 at NOC. The Standard Reports…

NOC's Shane Decker

NOC’s Shane Decker

Courtesy of Bernie Puchalski at The Standard…

Two-time champion (NOC’s Shane Decker)

The fastest man in Zone 4 is in no hurry to get out of high school.

Shane Decker, a Grade 12 student at Denis Morris and the reigning SOSSA senior boys track and field champion in the 100 and 200 metres, plans on returning for a second year of Grade 12.

“I am definitely coming back for 12B after the health issues I’ve had,” the 18-year-old said. “I need to come back and gather myself and forget what is going on.”

When he graduates, Decker will have plenty of options. He has received letters of interest from several Ontario universities wanting to have him on their track teams, including Brock, Guelph, Waterloo and Windsor.

Decker, who won the senior boys 100 metres (11.23 seconds) and 200 metres (23.02 seconds) at Thursday’s Zone 4 preliminary track and field meet, spent four weeks in the hospital in the winter of his Grade 10 year as doctors tried to figure out why he was passing out. This winter, the illness bug hit again when he missed a month of training while recovering from pneumonia.

“I got back into it in mid-January and I’m trying to train hard,” the Niagara Olympic Club runner said. “I still have a cough since my pneumonia but I’m working through it.”

This year, he’s aiming for a time of 10.8 seconds in the 100 metres and 21.9 seconds in the 200 metres. He needs to run under 11 seconds to qualify for the junior nationals.

“I ran it last year so it’s not a big deal. I will get it this year, too.”

He ran a personal-best 10.99 at last year’s Ontario championships in Toronto and ran 11.01 at Ontario Legion championships. He was unable to attend the Canadian championships because of a lack of funding.

“I have a job now so I’m hoping to go this summer,” he said.

This spring, his goal is to make the OFSAA 100-metre final, but it won’t be easy.

“I really think I can do it,” he said.

It’s hard for sprinters from Niagara to crack an OFSAA final.

“Toronto has all the fast sprinters and it’s ridiculous,” Decker said. “Once you get to OFSAA regionals, that’s when Toronto comes in and it’s very difficult.”

Read more…

A March Monday of Media Mayhem

niagara olympic clubEveryone talks about March Madness, and we had our own NOC  micro-version , jumping through hoops on Monday, March 3rd. At Sharon’s urging we had set up a St. Catharines City Council presentation for that evening, and as a result of the pre-publication of the agenda, we were interviewed by the St. Catharines Standard at the Club, on the prior Saturday. The outcome was a reasonably positive article, by Marlene Bergsma, in Monday’s paper, to start the day.

Then at around 4pm we were invited to be interviewed on the radio by Kevin Jack at CKTB 610 in St. Catharines. Sharon and Ian had a fun time with Kevin for about 12 minutes, and then it was off to City Hall for the presentation to Council, which of course is always televised. The presentation went well, and we really thank all of you Club members, parents and supporters who came along to the Council meeting as our cheering section.

An unexpectedly busy yet fun day holding court!

 

Mohammed Ahmed headlines strong NOC summer

MoAhmedRunningBadgerThanks to St. Catharines Standard for this excellent piece.

It’s a “must read”.

 

 

Heather sets out her goals on video…

HeatherPetrickVideoStill2013-07-19_1633NOC’s Heather Petrick candidly discusses how she decided on running the 3000 at the Pan Am Jr Games, representing Canada, coming up soon in Colombia. She also talks about her one year absence from running and what motivated her to return reinvigorated.

See it here. And, please share it with your friends and family.

NOC All-American to wear red and white…

MoAhmedInRedAndWhietFrom St. Catharines Standard:

Achieving All-American status did little to lessen Mo Ahmed’s disappointment with a fifth-place finish in the 5,000 metres at the NCAA indoor track and field championships in Arkansas.

“I’m pretty disappointed but I can’t change history. I have to somehow accept it,” the University of Wisconsin runner said.

The race was a fast-paced affair and the 2012 Olympian didn’t feel good at the start of the race.

“I just feel like I’m not fit enough yet,” he said. “I was in shape early in the season and then school started and training got interrupted a little bit. I haven’t really done consistent training and I’m riding that early wave of training.”

Next up for the St. Catharines Collegiate alumnus are the IAAF World Cross Country Championship in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He leaves for Poland this Saturday in preparation for the March 24 championships.

More…