On Saturday October 19, we gathered at the Holiday Inn Toronto International Airport to celebrate yet another successful season.
Firstly, as we had a technical glitch at the beginning of our presentation and we’d like to share the video that we had intended to show at the beginning of the event. Our fantastic media team, Equals 2, put together this incredible season recap for us and we want to make sure you get to see it!
We began the night with our VIP Hall of Fame Reception, where our seven newest Inductees were presented with their commemorative pins and were given a few minutes to speak. These new members include: Brian Armstrong, Nicole Forrester, Hugh Fraser, Beryl and Harry Kerrison, Brian Maxwell and Jill Ross. Congratulations to all of you on your lifelong achievements.
As the evening progressed, we were so proud to have nearly 80 of our All-Ontarians in attendance with us. We recognized each of these athletes by welcoming them to the stage to receive their certificate and take a group photo. Congratulations again, to all of our All-Ontarians. You can find this year’s list on our website.
In addition to this year’s new All-Ontarian program, we also recognized other important members within our community. As we announced prior to the Gala, our special recognition award winners are as follows:
Official of the Year: Gumar Balasubramanian
Volunteer of the Year: Mark Dwyer
Fan Favourite: Tulolope Akinduro
Our guest speaker, the Unstoppable Tracy Schmitt, was nothing shy of fantastic! Her inspirational story about her childhood and the obstacles she has overcome was so inspiring. If you want to learn more about Tracy and her journey, you can visit her website: https://www.unstoppabletracy.com/
Finally, we selected from our list of All-Ontarians, the top male and female athletes within each age category, to be named the 2019 Athletes of the Year. The recipients are as follows:
Awards Winners
U14 Female – Julia Tunks
U14 Male – Carson Gauthier
U16 Female – Aysia Maurice
U16 Male – Riley Flemington
U18 Female – Alexandria Webb / Mahalia Mitchell
U18 Male – Abdullahi Hassan
U20 Female – Trinity Tutti
U20 Male – Myles Misener-Daley
Open Female – Gabriela DeBues-Stafford
Open Male – Andre De Grasse / Mohammed Ahmed
Para Track Female – Madison Wilson-Walker
Para Track Male – Austin Smeenk
Para Field Female – Charlotte Bolton
Para Field Male – Josh Farrell
Masters Female – Karla Del Grande
Masters Male – Earl Fee
Congratulations again to all of our award winners, as well as our All-Ontarians, you should all be extremely proud of the incredible seasons you’ve had. We are honoured that so many of you chose to attend the event and we hope that you had a fantastic evening.
You can find the link to our event’s Photo Album on our Facebook page.
We look forward to seeing you next year, and we’ll see some of you at our provincial Cross Country Championships on November 10!
