Four Gander Wings Special Olympics athletes were put to the ultimate test at the Special Olympics Canada Summer Games, and came through with flying colours.
Floressa Harris, Michael Harris, Johnny Philpott and Mike Austin (from Lewisporte) were members of the provincial athletics team that competed at nationals, held July 13-17 in London, Ont., and the four locally trained track and field standouts combined for 12 medals — five gold, two silver and five bronze. The entire provincial athletics team won 22 medals, meaning the local athletes combined for more than half of the medals won by the entire provincial squad.
Athletics head coach Carmel Casey couldn’t have been more pleased with the way the four performed, saying each of the four Gander Wings stars achieved a personal-best time.
“They either recorded a personal-best time in a final or preliminary event, but they all did post a personal-best time or distance,” said Casey. “For us, that was the most important thing, and was something we emphasized to the athletes. If they got a medal it would be an extra, but we felt a medal to go with a personal best means a lot more than a medal without a personal best.”
Philpott struck gold in the 800-metre race and earned bronze in the 400-metre race. Floressa won gold in shot put, silver in the 200-m race and bronze in the standing long jump competition. Michael won gold in the 100-m and standing long jump, while earning silver in the shot put and bronze in the 200-m race. Lewisporte’s Austin captured gold in shot put, and bronze in both the 100-metre and 200-metre events.
According to Casey, all of the local athletes peaked at the national event, which was the plan from the beginning of training. Philpott, who for whatever reason wasn’t hitting his stride during the stretch run of training, found the gear he needed to hit at Summer Games.
“They all peaked, Johnny Philpott especially. We were watching him compete over the last six months, and he just wasn’t hitting his personal bests, and we were wondering what had happened,” said Casey. “He sort of lost that umph he used to have. When we were in London competing, Johnny found that overdrive gear and it was just amazing to see his determination, and how much effort he put into it.”
“It was a wonderful sense of accomplishment, and I’m very, very proud of our athletes.” - Carmel Casey
In fact, the former Gander Male Athlete of the Year did more than win two medals at nationals. He also captured the eye of one of the nations leaders in sports coverage.
“After every national games, TSN will broadcast a Special Olympics special as part of its Special Olympics Day. During that special, they’ll show highlights of the competition, and they’ll also profile a few athletes from across the country,” said Casey. “It looks like Johnny is going to be one of the athletes they profile. They interviewed him, they filmed his races, they interviewed his mother, and they interviewed me.”
Casey has a story to share about each of the Gander Wings athletes. Another memorable moment for the athletics head coach was watching Michael Harris win gold in the standing long jump — where the Gander athlete predicted how far he was going to jump before he took his gold-medal winning leap.
“Watching Michael Harris win the gold medal in the standing long jump with a phenomenal jump of 2.41 metres was pretty special. He was ranked third going into the final…and I remember saying to him as we walked over to the marshalls’ tent, ‘If you could just give this your all, I’m sure you can go over 2.4. The gold medal is within your grasp, so you have to decide between here and the long jump pit how badly you want it.’ He did his two jumps and placed third,” recalled Casey. “He got up for his final jump of the day, and had to exceed 2.36 metres to win. He got on the line, looked at the official and said, ‘I’m going to try for a 2.4.’ The official kind of smiled and nodded, and Michael did his jump, looked down, and it was 2.41. The official had a big smile on his face, pumped his arm — and that’s not the kind of thing you see from the officials — but he was obviously moved and excited by Michael’s efforts.”
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