University of Toronto Varsity Blues Jason Wurster and Mark Dillon are two of 29 student-athletes who will represent Canada in athletics at the 25th Summer Universiade, July 1-12, in Belgrade, Serbia. 2009
Wurster (Stevensville, Ont.) led the way for the Blues men’s track and field team in 2008-09 with an OUA gold medal and CIS silver medal in pole vault. He was also named an OUA first team all-star and CIS second team all-Canadian. Most recently, the fourth-year geography major set the second best height in Canadian history (5.50m) at a track and field meet in Rehlingen, Germany, which not only earned him a trip to Belgrade but also met the B standard for the world championships as well.
Recent Varsity Blues graduate and current member of the University of Toronto Track Club (UTTC), Dillon (Bowmanville, Ont.) won three CIS gold medals in high jump (2004, 2006, 2008), one silver (2007) and one bronze (2005) over five years of intercollegiate competition. A recent participant at the inaugural Festival of Excellence, Dillon jumped a personal best 2.25m in Kessel-Lo, Belgium in 2006 and repeated that performance at the 2008 Ontario track and field championships. Highlighting the national selection of 14 female and 15 male athletes is a foursome of 2008 Olympians including hammer thrower James Steacy (Lethbridge, Alta.), 400-metre specialist Carline Muir (Edmonton), high jumper Michael Mason (Nanoose Bay, B.C.), and long jumper Ruky Abdulai (Coquitlam, B.C.)
Another Team Canada member, sprinter Richard Adu-Bobie (Orleans, Ont.), was an alternate for the Canadian 4×100m relay at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. The other Team Canada members with FISU Games experience are University of Windsor decathlete Jamie Adjetey-Nelson (Windsor, Ont.), Simon Fraser 1,500m runner Julia Howard (St. John’s, BC), Institute of Technology 800m specialist Rebecca Johnstone (Bowen Island, B.C.), Western Kentucky 200m sprinter Gavin Smellie (Etobicoke, Ont.) and UBC 400m runner Nathan Vadeboncoeur (Vancouver).
Les Gramantik and Ingrid Ruys-George will act as team leader and team official, respectively, while Richard Crevier, Brett Lumley, Carla Nicholls, Dave Scott-Thomas and James Wardle make up the coaching staff. Canada has tallied 59 athletics medals in its history at the Universiade including four golds, 29 silvers and 26 bronzes. The track and field competition is set from July 7 to 11 in Belgrade with one final, the women’s 10,000m, scheduled on day one.