Familiar settings
Jonathan Boudreau hopes that racing in front of friends and family will help the Bisons win gold
STEVE BOHRN STAFF
PHOTO BY ROMER BAUTISTA
Jonathan Boudreau has been a part of Winnipeg’s track and field scene for a very long time. He started his career as a sprinter in junior high, which has led him to four CIS national championships with the Bisons.
This season marks Boudreau’s fifth and final year of eligibility as a CIS athlete.
There was a time, however, when it seemed that Boudreau’s track and field career would fizzle out in high school.
Right after finishing a high school career that consisted of two hours a day of practice, he found himself burnt out and lacking the will to carry on in track and field. So he decided to take a couple of years off from the sport. But in his mind, he never really forgot about track and field.
Then the 2001 Canada Summer Games came along and the sprinter in him came out. Although he also qualified in the sport of baseball, it was the call of the oval track that drew him back to the sport.
After representing Manitoba the province, representing Manitoba the university seemed like the perfect match. Boudreau knew most of the coaches and had a good rapport with many of the athletes and just fit right into the intense training plan that being an athlete entails.
During a typical week, that training plan would consist of doing some speed work with blocks on Monday, tempo work on Tuesday, more blocks and technical speed work on Wednesday, tempo and recovery on Thursday, and speed endurance on Friday with three or four runs at maximum velocity for up to 300 m.
The weekends are active rest days, which means preparing for next week by not letting your body get stiff and sore. One might ask, with all this training, how does an athlete ever find time for school?
This has never been a problem for Boudreau, who is an Academic All-Canadian this year. He finds that “keeping on top of your studies and getting things done on time is the best way to do it.”
“I have never really felt the pinch the way some athletes have, I guess I have been lucky that way.”
He has also been very lucky to have been coached by the Bisons staff. But the coach that has contributed the most to his development as a sprinter was Canadian Olympian Glenroy Gilbert, a member of the 4x100-metre relay team that took home gold at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.
Boudreau had the chance to spend six weeks in Ottawa training with Gilbert and learned much about the sport while he was there. The lessons he learned there have been a huge part of his training regimen since, he says.
Boudreau has taken into account all of these lessons learned to put together a solid Bisons career, one that he is quick to admit had “a lot of good times.”
However, there is one moment that sticks out above all other memories.
“It was when [the U of M] hosted the 2003-04 CIS National Championship track meet. Our relay team wasn’t expected to advance past the heats, but we all ran a super race in front of the home crowd and made it to the finals.”
That team, consisting of Stefan Fields, Boudreau, Kris Geyson, and Sheldon Kilcullen, drew a lot of energy from the home crowd, which urged the team to their sixth place showing in the event. It is that type of enthusiasm and support that Boudreau will hope to draw from as he and the rest of the Bisons race in the Canada West Track and Field championships being held at the University of Manitoba from Feb. 23-24.
Boudreau is slated to compete in the 60-metre dash individually and as a part of the men’s 4x200-metre relay.
Boudreau is confident that his race-day preparations that he has learned that will have the greatest impact on his performance at the Championships. On top of that, he feels that the team has a great chance and that running in front of the home crowd will only help.
After this year is done, Boudreau plans to slow down a bit and finish his degree. The travelling and hectic workout schedule will be parted with in happiness, but the competition and camaraderie of the team will be sorely missed.
