Craig Thorne

A native of Quispamsis, NB, Craig’s early years in the sport culminated in a two-medal performance at the 2018 Royal Canadian Legion Youth Track and Field Championships: Gold in the 400mh, and bronze in the 110mh. Progressing to the U20 category in 2019, Craig captured silver in the 110mh at the Canadian U20 Track and Field Championships. Following high school graduation, Craig began attending the University of Guelph and training with Royal City Athletics Club. Despite his relocation, Craig has always maintained his New Brunswick ties and has continued to represent the province in competition.

Quickly adjusting to the higher hurdles and climbing the rankings year-over-year, Craig captured silver medals at both the 2021 Canadian Track and Field Championships (110mh) and the 2022 U Sports Track and Field Championships (60mh). But his big breakthrough would come in 2022, when Craig captured gold in the 110mh at the Canada Summer Games. His blistering time of 13.83 would break the longstanding Games record, and make him the first (and so far only) competitor to break 14 seconds in the event. For his efforts, he was named a flag bearer for New Brunswick in the closing ceremony of the Games. Craig would follow this up with a gold medal performance in the 60mh at the 2023 U Sports Track and Field Championships, recording a time of 7.77 to break the collegiate record and tie the national U23 record.

The stadium record in the men’s 110m hurdles stands at 14.01, set by Ingvar Moseley at the 2013 Canadian Track and Field Championships. With a personal best of 13.60, Craig Thorne will be looking to add another record to his already impressive resume.

Patty Blanchard

A native of Moncton, NB, running came naturally for Patty. Enjoying athletics ever since she was a child, Patty began taking the sport seriously in the early-80s and quickly climbed the rankings to become one of Canada’s best. Over the next two decades, she collected countless medals and awards, including a bronze medal at the 1980 Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union (now U Sports) Cross Country Championships and Radio Canada’s Sports Personality of the Year Award in 1991. Patty would go-on to be named to 7 Canadian national teams, highlighted by a 97th place finish in the senior women’s race at the 1993 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Amorebieta, Spain.

But it was only upon progressing into the masters categories that Patty’s talents would be fully recognized. In 1999, she set her first masters world record in the W40 indoor mile, and later that year captured two gold medals at the World Masters Athletics Championships, in the W40 1500m and 5000m. In subsequent years, Patty would set another three world records, and would collect a handful more medals at the World Masters Athletics Championships. At the national level, Patty continues to hold 11 masters records, including those set indoors, outdoors, and on the roads; in distances ranging from the 800m to the half marathon; and across 5 different masters age categories (W40, W45, W50, W55, and W60). Beyond medals and records, Patty has been inducted into numerous halls of fame, including the Canadian Masters Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021.

In recognition of Patty Blanchard’s outstanding accomplishments spanning over half a century, competition organizers are pleased to name an annual event in her honour, and are excited that Patty will be running in its inaugural edition. On June 10th, look out for some of Canada’s top masters athletes as they compete in the Patty Blanchard Masters 5000m.

Shari Boyle

A native of Lower Sackville, NS, Shari took-up running as a teenager when she joined Chebucto Athletics Club. As a varsity athlete, Shari was a major contributor to Dalhousie University’s dominance in women’s cross country and track and field in the early 90s, capturing numerous Atlantic Universities Athletics Association (now AUS) medals in both disciplines, and achieving Canadian Interuniversity Sport (now U Sports) Second Team All-Canadian honours in 1991. After taking-up other sporting hobbies in post-collegiate life, Shari came back to the sport a number of years later with a dream of competing in the IAFF World Cross Country Championships. Her dream became a reality when she wore the maple leaf in the 2005 edition of the Championships, placing 81st in the senior women’s race.

Women’s steeplechase did not become a regular event offering until the mid-2000s, and so was not an event that Shari was able to contest growing-up. But upon entering the masters categories in the late 2000s, it quickly became her calling, and Shari would go-on to set two national records in the 2000m distance (7:33.16 in the W40 category, and 7:17.19 in the W45 category). Beyond steeplechase, Shari also holds a world record in the W40 4x800m, set alongside three fellow Canadians in 2016.

The W50 2000m steeplechase world record currently stands at 7:42.04, set in 2011 by Marie-Claude Bodilis-Loaëc of France. Will Shari Boyle make history and set a new world record in the event? Find out on June 10th!

Kaila Butler

A native of Port Coquitlam, BC, Kaila began her career contesting a variety of throwing events: hammer, discus, and shot put. But the hammer throw would quickly become her forte, and her talents would earn her a spot on the roster of Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Representing the Falcons for 6-years, Kaila achieved numerous honours, highlights by three second-team All-American honours and a best 9th place finish at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Perhaps most impressively, she extended her personal best by 12.75m, transitioning from a high-ranked athlete in the Mid-American Conference to one of the NCAA’s best.

But it was an astonishing throw 69.35m in the spring of 2022 that would land Kaila on her first-ever national team…not just one, but two in fact. Kaila was named to the national team for both the Commonwealth Games and the NACAC Championships. At the Commonwealth Games, Kaila made her first-ever international final and placed 8th – an impressive international debut. At the NACAC Championships just a few weeks later, Kaila would place 5th.

Looking to qualify for the 2023 World Athletics Championships, Kaila Butler will be looking for valuable World Rankings points, or better yet, the automatic entry standard of 73.60m. With a personal best of 69.35m and a seasonal best of 68.83m, the stadium record of 68.23m, set by Olympian Sultana Frizell at the 2013 Canadian Track and Field Championships, will be in jeopardy.

Usheoritse “Dushos” Itsekiri

A native of Sapele, Nigeria, Dushos was always the fastest kid on the soccer pitch, and so the transition to sprinting came naturally. He competed for Nigeria in both the African Youth Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Youth Games in 2015, and made his senior international debut in 2018 when he ran on the Nigerian 4x100m relay team at the Commonwealth Games. But Dushos’ breakout year would come in 2019, when he recorded a personal best of 10.02 in the 100m; won his first senior national titles (in both the 100m and 200m); captured two medals at the African Games (bronze in the 100m and silver in the 4x100m); and competed in his first World Athletics Championships. He took his talents a step further in 2021, when he represented Nigeria in the Tokyo Olympic Games, advancing to the semi-finals of the 100m after running a time of 10.15 in the heats.

Moving to Canada in January 2022 to pursue a Master of Engineering degree at the University of Regina, Dushos experienced a year of firsts. It was his first time braving the Canadian winter, competing in the 60m event, and running the tight turns of an indoor track. Despite all of this, Dushos quickly found success in his new environment. He captured back-to-back 60m gold at the 2022 and 2023 U Sports Track and Field Championships, and at the more recent edition picked-up another gold as a member of his University’s 4x200m team.

The stadium record of 10.20, set by Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas at the 2012 edition of the Hub City Classic, has withstood the test of time and survived against the likes of Canadian World-Olympic medalists Andre de Grasse, Aaron Brown, Justyn Warner, Gavin Smellie, and Dontae Richards-Kwok, among others. Will the record survive against Usheoritse Itsekiri? Find out on June 10th!

Andrew Peverill

A native of Lower Sackville, NS, Andrew has been a staple of the Atlantic endurance community since he was just a teenager. As a youth, he represented Team Nova Scotia / Nunavut at three consecutive Royal Canadian Legion Youth Track and Field Championships, and placed 7th in the 5000m at the Canada Summer Games – impressive for a then 18 year old. But it was upon enrolling at St. Mary’s University in 2017 that his career really began to take-off, making the jump between simply being a competitor at nationals to a consistent medal contender.

Continuously dropping his times year-over-year, Andrew’s biggest accomplishments have come over the past 12 months. At last year’s Canada Summer Games, Andrew captured gold in the 5000m and silver in the 1500m. In the cross country season, Andrew won his third consecutive title at the AUS Championships – the first to do so since Olympian Paul McCloy in 1984-86 – and earned First Team All-Canadian honours with a 6th place finish at the U Sports Championships. In the indoor season, Andrew smashed AUS Championship records in both the 1500m and 3000m, and went on to win a bronze medal in the 1500m at the U Sports Championships. Most recently, Andrew has been closing-in on the sub-4 minute mile, recording a personal best of 4:01.78 at this past weekend’s Bob Vigars Classic in Windsor, ON.

With a personal best time of 3:45.00, Andrew Peverill will lead a stacked field of rising stars from across Canada in the men’s 1500m. Stay tuned as we announce the field he’ll be up against on June 10th!

Jennessa Wolfe

A native of Valley, NS, Jennessa has long stood out as one of Nova Scotia’s best age-class jumpers, predominantly in the high jump, but also in the horizontal events. Her meteoric rise to becoming one of Canada’s best however would largely come throughout the pandemic, leaving her to appear an underdog when competition resumed at the national level. But to anyone who knew her work ethic and the heights she’s cleared, it was clear that Jennessa was anything but an underdog.

At the 2022 Royal Canadian Legion Youth Track and Field Championships – her first time competing in these Championships – Jennessa cleared 1.75m to secure a commanding victory, and would narrowly miss out on a second medal in the triple jump, finishing 4th by just 4 centimeters. At just 18 years of age and up against athletes many years her senior, Jennessa narrowly missed the podium at the Canada Summer Games just two weeks later. Although she cleared the same height as the silver and bronze medalists, a higher number of misses on countback left her in the 4th position. More recently, at this year’s Canadian Indoor Track and Field Championships, Jennessa captured gold in the U20 women’s high jump – an event she won the year prior in the U18 category – and picked-up a pair of silver medals in the long jump and triple jump (an improvement on the two bronze medals she won the year prior in the U18 category).

Jennessa Wolfe enters into the competition with a 1.77m personal best. On June 10th, come cheer on one of Canada’s rising stars and see for yourself how high she can raise the bar!