LOWER SACKVILLE: Athletes from across HRM who members of Athletics East were recognized at a year-end awards banquet.
The banquet was held prior to the holidays at the Kinsmen Centre in Lower Sackville.
Athletes who were honoured came from a variety of communities and are members of Athletics East, which is the newly formed athletics organization that used to be Chebucto Athletics and Halifast.
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Picking up the senior female and male athlete of the year were the following athletes:
u16 Male – Wyatt Thurston (Lower Sackville)
- Double gold at school provincials, broke both the 100m and 200m junior boys records
- Named to Team NS at Legion Nationals, placed 13th in the 200m.
u16 Female – Anna Carruthers (Beaver Bank)
- Silver and bronze at school provincials, gold at XC provincials
- Named to Team NS at Legion Nationals, placed 5th in the 2000m.
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u18 Male – Folu Adebisi (Halifax)
- Gold in Triple Jump at school provincials, senior boys
- Ranked 7th in Canada in U18 boys triple jump.
u18 Female – Abby Lewis (Beaver Bank)
- Double gold at Legion Nationals
- Double gold at NACAC U18 and both records
- 5th at XC Nationals, to represent Canada at world juniors.
u20 Male – Griffin Gamble (Shad Bay)
- Silver and bronze at school provincials
- On to STFX, rookie of the year AUS XC
- All-rookie team at U Sports
u20 Female – Lila Getchtman (Halifax)
- 2nd at ANS Provincial Club Champs
- Moved onto SMU and has PBd in the 60m.
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Sr Male – Aidan Goslett- (Toronto)
- Broke the AUS record in the 1000m.
- Won a USports silver medal in the 1000m and placed 4th in the 1500m.
Sr Female – Chloe Richardson (Calgary)
- Double AUS Championships medalist (300m and 600m)
- Broke 2:10 in her debut season over 800m in the summer (only two Nova Scotia athletes did this in 2023).
Para Male – RJ Roggevan
Para Female – Kim Neary
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2023 Most Improved
Jaiden Williams (Cole Harbour)
- Two new PB’s in 2023:
- 2nd place finish in the 60m, time: 7.01 (the same meet in 2022 ran 7.36
- 3rd in the 300m (37.87)
Poppy Moon (Bedford)
- Bronze at Legion Nationals
- Went from 2:28 the year before to 2:13
- PBd from 400m to 3000m
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Scott Turnbull Award for Perseverance and Determination
Scott Turnbull trained with Chebucto Athletics in the 70’s and 80’s. He won a gold medal at Youth Legion National Championships, not just with talent, but was proof that through dedication and perseverance, reaching your goals is always possible.
He then went on to give back to the sport by coaching and volunteering with the Special Olympics in the Annapolis Valley since the mid-1980’s.
The Scott Turnbull award is presented annually to an individual that represents dedication, hard work and perseverance, and a commitment to the sport and to their team.
There were two recipients for 2023, as follows:
Cate Gaudry (Windsor Junction)
Cate broke her foot in the spring and spent the majority of the summer in a walking boot. Most athletes, especially at the high school level, would have been out for the season after this kind of injury.
Instead, Cate decided to start training for the throws, continued to attend every practice, and actually qualified for provincials in shot put while throwing in her boot – she stuck a peanut butter lid onto the bottom of the boot so she could spin in it.
Zack Rogers (Enfield)
- competed in 5 events at school provincials, won silver in the 800m.
- 4th at XC provincials, first year in the Sr. category
- Decided to compete in javelin while he was sidelined from running due to injury and placed sixth at provincials.
- Continued to attend practices, even when he couldn’t participate.
- Has overcome injuries and boosts morale to every practice he attend.
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Doug Mitchell Coach of the Year Award
Ian MacDonald (High School Endurance)
Troye Williams (High School Sprint)
