OTTAWA – The 2013 Pan American Junior Championships begin Friday in Medellin, Columbia featuring a Canadian contingent of 51 athletes. For many of these athletes the three day competition will be their first taste of international competition and their first opportunity to take on some of the best in the world with an eye on a podium finish.
Headlining the team are two athletes who just finished competing in Moscow, Russia at the 2013 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championship. Shawnacy Barber of Toronto, Ont., competed in Moscow in the men’s pole vault while Khamica Bingham of Brampton, Ont., served as anchor on the women’s 4×100-metres relay team that set a new Canadian Record and finished sixth in the world.
“Our country’s best junior-aged athletes and their coaches have been saddled with a great challenge – to deliver the best performance of the year at a competition that has changed dates and location since annual plans were first set last September,” comments team head coach Laurier Primeau. “All countries competing at the championship face the same reality, thus our medal expectation hasn’t changed. We will consider it a job well done if we can improve on our tally of two years ago.” At the last edition of this event in 2011 Canada came away with 13 medals; six silver and seven bronze.
2013 Pan American Junior Championships team
| Name | Event | Hometown | Personal Coach |
| Tacuma Anderson-Richards | High Jump | Toronto, ON | Tony Sharpe |
| Shawnacy Barber | Pole Vault | Toronto, ON | George Barber / Milt Ottey |
| Shawn Beaudoin | Decathlon | LaSalle, ON | Kristi Ryan |
| Corey Bellemore | 800m | Windsor, ON | Chris Scarrow / David Scarrow |
| Khamica Bingham | 100m / 200m | Brampton, ON | Frank Bucca |
| Robin Bone | Pole Vault | London, ON | Dave Collins |
| Zachary Bornstein | Decathlon | Kitchener, ON | Cheryl Bowman |
| Amelia Brohman | 100m / 200m | Ottawa, ON | Lyndon George |
| Jordan Bruce | Triple Jump | Dartmouth, NS | Kevin Bourgeois |
| Alex Bussières | 1500m | Quebec, QC | Félix-Antoine Lapointe |
| Scott Buttinger | 800m | Waterloo, ON | Tom Fitzgerald |
| Deon Clifford | 3000m SC | White Rock, BC | Lynn Kanuka |
| Andre Degrasse | 100 / 200m | Markham, ON | Tony Sharpe |
| Ixhil Diaz Espin | Javelin | Lachine, QC | Frederick Arlen |
| Stevens Dorcelus | Long Jump | Montreal, QC | Daniel St-Hilaire |
| Georgia Ellenwood | Heptathlon | Langley, BC | Kim Chapdelaine |
| Agnes Esser | Shot Put / Discus | Duncan, BC | Sheldan Gmitroski |
| Andre Ford-Azonwanna | 100m | Toronto, ON | Karl Gray |
| Kayla Gallagher | Hammer | Truro Heights, NS | Paul Millman / Larry Steinke |
| Nathan George | 400m | Coquitlam, BC | Tara Self |
| Christopher Green | 400m Hurdles | Kitchener, ON | Janusz Tomko |
| Kelly Gribbons | Discus | Port Elgin, ON | Randy Millar |
| Eric Guy | 110m Hurdles | Winnipeg, MB | Rory McIntyre |
| Tiffany Hernandez | Javelin | Hamilton, ON | Ryan Heberling |
| Alexa Hrycun | 400m Hurdles | Edmonton, AB | Nick Stoffberg |
| Evan Karakolis | Javelin | Toronto, ON | Anatoliy Bondarchuk / Casey Thom |
| John Krzyszkowski | Javelin | Mississauga, ON | Richard Parkinson |
| Katelyn Lehner | Heptathlon | Prince Albert, SK | Kelly Prins |
| Alhaji Mansaray | High Jump | Winnipeg, ON | Wayne McMahon |
| Brandon McBride | 400m | Windsor, ON | Chris Scarrow |
| Madeline McDonald | 3000m | Toronto, ON | Terry Radchenko |
| Vanessa Mcleod | 800m | Toronto, ON | Stephen Strong |
| Peter Millman | Shot Put/Discus/ Hammer | Truro, NS | Paul Millman / Larry Steinke |
| DeShaundra Morrison | 100m HUrdles | Calgary, AB | John Cannon |
| Alysha Newman | Pole Vault | Delaware, ON | Doug Wood / Zdenek Krykorka |
| Charles Nguyen | Hammer | St. Thomas, ON | Joshua Archer |
| Heather Petrick | 3000m | Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON | Sharon Stewart / Bill MacDonald |
| Daniel Polinski | Shot Put | Mississauga, ON | Jack Harkness |
| Nicole Setterington | 100m Hurdles | London, ON | Sandra Cooper-Ryder |
| Jordan Sherwood | 400mH | Cambridge, ON | Ray Riley |
| Elijah Silva | 1500m | Toronto, ON | William Stephens |
| Marie-Colombe St. Pierre | 400m | Lac Etchemin, QC | Félix-Antoine Lapointe |
| Gabriela Stafford | 1500m | Toronto, ON | Terry Radchenko |
| Antoine Thibeault | 3000m Steeplechase | St-Gérard-Des Laurentides, QC | Pierre Thibodeau |
| Blake Thompson | Discus | Barrie, ON | Monique Kovacs |
| Sage Watson | 400m / 400m Hurdles | Medicine Hat, AB | John Cannon |
| Jenna Westaway | 800m | Calgary, AB | John Cannon |
| Andre Wright | 110m Hurdles | Pickering, ON | Tony Sharpe |
| Regan Yee | 3000m Steeplechase | Hazelton, BC | Neal Currie |
| Madeline Yungblut | 5000m | Wroxeter, ON | Dave Scott-Thomas |
| Julia Zrinyi | 1500m | Winnipeg, MB | Andrea McDonough |
For more information visit: http://www.athletics.ca/page.asp?id=680.
-AC-
Emily Hooper
Coordinator, Marketing and Communications
Athletics Canada
(613) 260-5580 x.3332
