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Canadian Masters Athletics
Announces 2020 Hall of Fame Inductees
June 3, 2020: – Canadian Masters Athletics has announced its 2020 inductees into the Canadian Masters Athletics Hall of Fame.
Based on recommendations made by the Hall of Fame Committee, the CMA Board inducts into the Canadian Masters Athletics Hall of Fame individuals who are judged to have made significant contributions to masters athletics in Canada, in either of two categories – as Athletes or as Executives/Administrators.
For the year 2020, four individuals will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the category of Athletes, Marcel Jobin from St. Boniface, QC, Nanci Patten (Sweazey) from Cambridge, ON, Ted Rowan from Martensville, SK and the late Rhona Trott from Hamilton, ON.
Marcel Jobin began racewalking in 1968 at the age of 26, and represented Canada in many open international events. As a masters athlete, he competed in the Olympics Games, twice in the Pan-American Games, twice in the Commonwealth Games, in the World Championships and two World Cups. In his early years of training in the style of loose tracksuit common at that time, but unknown to the general population, he became known as “Le fou en pyjama” (“the fool in pyjamas”!).
After being “retired” from open competition for over 20 years, Marcel returned to masters competition around 2010. He has competed in five World and two Regional Masters Athletics Championships, winning four gold, five silver and one bronze medals. He has also competed in three Canadian Masters Championships, winning six gold medals.
Marcel holds 17 Canadian Masters records set between 1981 and 2018. During his impressive career as a racewalker, he has set nearly 100 Canadian records, open or masters, in racewalks from 3K to 50K. He is now trying for World records in his M75 age group.
Nanci Patten (Sweazey) has been a CMA member for almost 30 years, and is now competing in the W60 age group. Her main events have been the racewalks, but she has also competed in cross country, road races and track events, including the steeplechase, hurdles and relays. Earlier, she competed as an open athlete internationally for Canada, including in the World Cup, setting Canadian Open records in the process. She was part of the wave of pioneers in international women’s racewalks.
Nanci has competed at 13 World Masters Championships, winning 21 medals, including 8 as a member of teams. She has been a prolific competitor, with 184 races in just the walks over 29 years. As well as World, Ontario and Canadian meets, she has competed extensively in the United States and in Europe. She has set 65 CMA age group records, of which 20 are still standing.
Ted Rowan was a CMA member for 16 years but, at age 87, he is now retired from competing. He competed indoors and outdoors in a broad spectrum of events – sprints, middle distance, hurdles, vertical and horizontal jumps, throws and combined events.
Ted competed in 11 Canadian Masters Championships, winning 44 gold medals. In the two World Masters Championships in which he competed, he won two gold, three silver and one bronze medals. He has set 22 CMA age group records and two World Masters records, all of which are still standing.
Through most of his competitive years, Ted was ranked in the top five in the World in various events, and first in the combined events.
Rhona Trott was a member of the CMA for about 30 years, until she passed away in 2019 at the age of 70. She competed in sprints, short and long hurdles, middle distance, long jump, high jump, throws, combined events, relays and (rarely) distance.
Rhona competed at nine WMA Championships, winning 10 medals, including 5 in relays. We have incomplete information on her CMA Championship appearances, but we list 50 medals in individual events between 1995 and 2015. She also competed almost every year in both indoor and outdoor Ontario Masters Championships, winning at least 135 gold medals. Over the years, she set at least 30 CMA age group records, of which 11 still stand, including 2 from 2007.
Rhona also made tremendous contributions to athletics outside competitions. As well as being a coach, working with athletes of all ages, she volunteered on the executives of her two Canadian Track & Field clubs in a variety of capacities. For the CMA, she was the Throws Records Chair and a member of the Hall of Fame Committee for many years.
Presentation of Awards
The presentation of their awards to the inductees into the Canadian Masters Athletics Hall of Fame have traditionally taken place at the CMA Awards Dinner, held in conjunction with the Canadian Masters Athletics Outdoor Track and Field Championships. As those Championships have been cancelled for 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the CMA Board will decide on another appropriate venue at which to make these presentations, which could involve combining the 2020 and 2021 presentations.
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