By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
The Cheney Track Club is hosting the 2009 USA Track and Field Inland Northwest championships this Saturday at Eastern Washington University's Woodward Field beginning at 9 a.m.
The event is expected to draw upwards of 200 athletes from across the region, including a special appearance from the St. Luke's Hospital's Paralympic track and field team. The St. Luke's team features Chelsea McClammer, a wheelchair racer who competed for the 2008 USA Paralympic team in Bejing, China.
The meet is an open (all ages: 5 - 90+), complete Olympic type track meet and is being held in Cheney for the first time after years in Pullman, and a 2008 visit to University High in Spokane.
“We hosted a little meet last year and I think we did pretty good,” Kurt Holland, president of the Cheney Track Club and meet director said. “We've made every effort to rekindle the track and field culture that's been in the community, but really hasn't gotten a lot of recognition.”
This event might push things in that direction for a number of reasons, most notably because of the uniqueness of what's going to take place on the rubber track at Eastern.
While he's not exactly sure why the meet moved from Spokane to Cheney, Holland is not questioning the change and welcoming the opportunity to promote his organization. Facilities are under construction in Pullman, Holland pointed out. Local officials approached him about hosting the event and about the only thing that concerns him is the serious need for volunteers to work the meet.
If the past is any indication, the all-age group meet is likely to include a true variety of competitors, Holland said. “We've had a 90-year old javelin thrower and I've been getting two to three master athlete inquiries each week.” If they all show up it would be more than Holland has ever seen at a meet before. Holland ran in the event last year, but will be content to be an administrator this time around.
“There are teams coming up from Grangeville, Idaho, which I didn't know even existed (as far as a track team),” Holland said with a little laugh.
Competition in some events will feature able-bodied athletes competing against paralympic team members in a number of events in the youth divisions. As far as St. Luke's paralympic coach Teresa Skinner knows, this is the first meet she's ever heard of that incorporates competition between both youth paralympic and able-bodied athletes.
Skinner's team is composed of some 15 kids, age 5 through 15, some of whom have just returned from international competition in Manchester, England.
As for Cheney hosting this event in the future, Holland indicated, “It's ours if we want it.” Even if it is not a meet of this stature, “There's nothing stopping us from having another track meet and doing the same.”
“I need volunteers,” Holland emphasized. “It's an Olympic-type track meet so you have all the events, the steeplechase, the hammer throw, various hurdle events at different heights. Holland said he'd like to have 40 to 50 volunteers, enough to have crews just work half days.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected]
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