Here's the media release on the Olympic Trials/National Senior Championships
Ehrhardt Surprises with Olympic Trials Bronze!
Track North Athletic Club's Caroline Ehrhardt was a surprise bronze medalist at the weekend's National Senior Track & Field Championships and Olympic Trials, in Windsor. this weekend.
Ehrhardt, a 16-year old grade 11 student at Espanola Secondary School, put herself into medal contention on her first jump with a huge personal best of 12.41 metres. It was a performance that held up through five more rounds of jumping. While the leap did not meet the Olympic standard, it exceeded the performance standards for the World Youth (Under 18) Championships in 2009. The event was won by 26-year old Tabia Charles who jumped 13.92.
"After her preliminary rounds on Friday, I knew she had more in her" said coach, Jim Taylor. "She definitely came through when it counted!"
Andrew Ellerton, who continues to represent Track North while running professionally for Reebok, won a bronze medal in the 800m with a time of 1:47.44. While Ellerton's time did not qualify him for the Olympic team, his Spring campaign brought him incredibly close to selection, with a race in Indianapolis only .07 away from the Olympic standard and another in Victoria only .12 away from the magic 1:46.0 mark. Two races at 1:46.0, in addition to his third place finish this weekend, would have placed him on the Olympic squad.
Ellerton's summer is not over. He will now head overseas and spend several weeks racing on the highly competitive European circuit.
"Andrew's race wasn't ideal for setting a personal best," said Track North coach, Dick Moss. Gary Reed and Ashraf Tadili had already having set the Olympic standard and had only to run for place, not time. So Andrew was forced to lead the race for the first 400m. You can run fast times as a front-runner, but it makes the task more difficult. Fortunately, Andrew has a tremendous coach in Ron Warhurst and some European races in his sights, so I think his times will drop significantly this summer."
Also competing at the trials were Ben Charbonneau who placed 14th in the javelin with a toss of 54.13, and Madeleine Woods who placed 26th in the 800m with a time of 2:15.08.
