Future bright for Manitoba track and field athletes

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This article was published 17/07/2024 (440 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Although they didn’t crack the roster for representing Canada at this year’s Olympics, Manitoba athletes Madisson Lawrence, Daxx Turner and Shane Dyck made their mark at the 2024 Bell Trials for the Olympic and Paralympic Games at the end of June — highlighting a promising future for Manitoba in track and field.

Lawrence, 25, had an up-and-down year after suffering a stress fracture in January, forcing her to sit out most of the indoor track competitions.

Lawrence shifted her focus to training in the outdoor season, which turned out pretty good for the athlete who is now a national champion in the heptathlon event, scoring 5566 points in Montréal at the 2024 Bell Trials to secure her victory.

“There were a lot of highs and lows,” said Lawrence on the season. “There was a lot of good and bad, even in the performance at Nationals, same kind of thing. I got off on a really bad start with my first three events, but then the 200 turned everything around and then I was able to put together a really strong performance in the four remaining events.”

Lawrence ran the 200-metre event in 24.84 seconds. She ended the seven-event competition with a strong performance in the 800-metre, finishing in 2:13.28 (five seconds ahead of second place), to clinch gold.

“During the injury, I was definitely really persistent with my training,” said Lawrence. “So even though I couldn’t run, there were a lot of things I could do. I could still do some throwing, I was biking for endurance, rowing, a lot of cross-training. So I didn’t feel like I was losing much, the one limiting thing was the jumping because it was my jumping foot… But I feel like we gradually got back into it, and then it figured itself out eventually.”

A week following the Bell Trials, Lawrence competed at the Canadian Track & Field League Finals in Ottawa, where she got a personal best in the 100-metre hurdles with a time of 13.90, which she says is a highlight of her season.

As for her Olympic dream, which remains her biggest goal career-wise, Lawrence and her coach are still prioritizing other milestones such as hitting 6000 points in the heptathlon and consistently making national teams.

“We said that we would try and that it would definitely be a focus,” said Lawrence. “But it wasn’t everything, if that makes sense. Like if it happens, that would be fantastic, but we also knew based on world rankings, where I’m at might not be quite enough at this point in time, so we wanted to make sure that wasn’t the only focus.”

Lawrence also completed her degree in Physical Education at the University of Manitoba but has since shifted gears to pursue studies in actuarial mathematics at the Asper School of Business.

Neepawa product Turner also had a standout performance at the Bell Trials, earning silver in the triple jump and adding to what has been a very successful season for the 22-year-old.

After some logistical issues made the competition go over four hours, Turner, who was almost ready to give up, saved his best just for last and leaped 16.14 metres to claim his silver medal — setting a new provincial record in the process.

Turner, who didn’t jump under 15.30 metres all season, won his first national gold medal in March at the U Sports competition in Manitoba.

“When I first started university, I felt like I really needed to work very hard, like if I wasn’t sore the next day after practice, I wasn’t working hard enough,” said Turner. “I took a step back from that and just focused on making all the small things, every rep, every drill, every practice as good as possible. Just focusing less on working hard and more on creating quality in my practices.”

“Honestly in a sport where your training is mostly just repeating things and waiting for the results to come, I think that just helped me progress this summer and it showed. This was the fastest biggest progression I’ve had since I was 17,” he said.

In the near future, Turner hopes to become an outdoor national champion and make a world championship team in 2025 — with his sights set on the 2028 Olympics

“Come 2028, I’m definitely going to make a big push for it,” said Turner.

Turner, who studies kinesiology at the University of Manitoba will be competing at the U23 Western Canada Team Challenge this weekend before going on a break from training for the summer.

In the Paralympic trials, Shane Dyck earned bronze in the seated discus event with a 24.23-metre throw — after only roughly three months of training.

Dyck, who found out about the event at a para-sport expo in January, picked up training in April/May.

“I’m pretty new to the Para athletic scene, and I’ve been nursing injuries since I started, so it’s been a bit difficult to get out all the time, and I was pretty nervous and anxious going into it,” said Dyck who is taking a break from training to help his injury. “…But the experience was amazing. I enjoyed it greatly.”

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Dyck, who suffered a severe spinal cord injury after a motorcycle crash in August 2013, left him paralyzed from the neck down. After being given less than a one per cent chance of walking again, Dyck remarkably regained mobility throughout his body after months of physiotherapy. Three years after his accident, he worked his way back to competing in bodybuilding. Currently, Dyck also plays adaptive golf.

“Basically what made me get into it was just accepting the fact that I am where I am, I have to embrace my injury at this point,” said Dyck. “And I needed to try and be competitive again. I wanted to find something that suited me and that I was passionate about.”

Being new to the field throwing sports, Dyck had to use a generic throwing frame that did not fit him in the competition. He hopes that representing Canada in the future will bring sponsors or grants to help pay for a chair that is accessible and adaptive for discus, javelin and shot put.

“It meant a lot. I’ve honestly been doing this for a couple of months, so I can’t complain,” said Dyck on getting bronze. “But, based on my competitive nature, I always strive for more. So it did mean a lot, but I’m also not satisfied. I can definitely get my distances a lot further, get a lot of firsts in the future and hopefully make it into the Paralympics.”

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca