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Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor 23 | Friday, June 28, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" National record-setter ready for new challenges Wheelchair racer Austin Smeenk, 16, dominates at nationals a second faster than his previous personal best (which was recorded in an unofficial race), and it was 14.33 seconds faster than second-place finisher Eddy Solla. Solla held the previous record, posting a time of 2:09.23 in 2011. "It was definitely a thrill to have your name announced that you beat the Canadian record. That part was really cool," said Smeenk, a member of Mississauga-based Cruiser Sports for the Physically Disabled. "But at the same time, I'm very modest about it. It's not that great of an accomplishment, just because I knew I could beat it by so much." What Smeenk is most excited about is the opportunity to test himself against the best in the world. His performance at nationals qualified him for next month's International Association of Athletics Federation world championships in Lyon, France. "In the last year, we set the goal to be the top in Canada at nationals. I'm pretty much there, and I'm satisfied with that achievement," said Smeenk, who won the national 200m by 0.8 seconds and the 400m by 6.25 seconds. "Now, for the first time, I've made world standards... Looking at the international scale, I'm not the best person there is. There's nobody behind me, everybody's in front of me." Competing in the world championships will also give Smeenk the type of experience he lacked a year ago, when he turned down the opportunity to compete in the Paralympics because it seemed like too much, too soon. "If I were to just show up at the biggest see International on p.25 Austin Smeenk obliterated a national record at the recent Canadian Track and Field Championships in New Brunswick, eclipsing the previous standard by nearly 10 per cent. He comfortably won two other races at the meet as well, finishing the championships with three gold medals and a silver. Yet, it was the race Smeenk didn't win -- the T34 wheelchair 100-metre event -- that the 16-year-old Iroquois Ridge High School talked about the most when asked to reflect on the experience. "That was probably the most exciting race of the week," said Smeenk. Part of that was because of the photo finish. Smeenk and defending 100m champion Nathan Dewitt both were clocked with times of 16.96 seconds, and organizers needed several minutes to determine that Dewitt edged out Smeenk by five one-thousandths of a second. "It was about four millimetres (difference) moving at 32 kilometres per hour," Smeenk recalled. "They blew it up a thousand times and were looking at the axles." But another reason Smeenk would choose to focus on the 100m, rather than his record performance in the 800m and his other wins in the 200m and 400m, might be that such challenges are becoming less and less common in domestic competition. Smeenk admitted breaking the record in the 800m was a bit anticlimactic. His time of 1:57.33 was just six one-hundredths of Danielle Spice will represent Canada at next month's Nations Cup international under-20 rugby tournament. | photo by Hannah Yoon --Special to the Beaver OT graduate to compete in U20 Nations Cup by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff Two weeks ago, Danielle Spice stood in the stands at BMO Field in Toronto before Canada's men's rugby team squared off against Ireland in a test match. As the first notes of O Canada flowed from the stadium's sound system, Spice felt a rush of excitement. The 19-year-old knew that in a few short weeks it would be her standing on a field in England as the national anthem played. It has been just six years since Spice was first introduced to the sport -- almost by accident -- but next month she will don a Canadian jersey for the national under-20 team at the Nations Cup. And while representing her country has been one of her goals, you only need to hear Spice talk about the sport to realize she would be happy to play anytime, anywhere. The 19-year-old recalls "finding this beautiful place" when she joined the Oakville Crusaders when she was 13. The teenager didn't have any plans for the summer when she got a phone call from a friend. When Claire Newman's brother signed up to play for the Crusaders, Newman discovered the club also had a girls' program. She was interested but didn't want to go alone, so she called Spice. "I just kind of fell into it," Spice said, "and now it's this beautiful enigma that I'm wrapped up in and I can't get out of." And while she may have fallen into the game, it's been her dedication to the sport that has helped her achieve success on the see Spice on p.24 Some things are just better together. #itsbettertogether facebook.com/flyerland.ca @flyerland