Terrace’s Tyler Dozzi shattered the 3K record at the track and field zone championships on Vancouver Island, and he’s aiming for bigger records to come.
He claimed the meet record by more than six seconds, finishing in 8:28.00 compared to the prior 8:34.78 record held by Brendan Hoff from the Saanich area.
At the same meet, Dozzi also won the 1,500 metre and was named the Male Athlete of the Meet.
“It was pretty cool,” said Dozzi. “It’s cool that my name is going to go down on something… there’s probably going to be kids in the future saying ‘hey, what’s the record? I want to try and shoot for it,’ and they’ll look — 8:28, and they’ll see my name.”
At the same time, Dozzi said that breaking that meet record isn’t too significant compared to what he is aiming for.
“It wasn’t too big of a deal for me… I have goals that matter more,” he said.
Dozzi is driven to make Team Canada and compete in the Pan American Games in Peru July 21-23.
Only the two best runners in the country will qualify, and Dozzi says he knows only four competitors in that realm.
“[That’s] based on who I know already,” he said. “You never know what’s going to happen — good people come from everywhere.”
His shot at Team Canada comes on June 10, where he sprints a 5K in Portland and must qualify by clocking one of the two fastest times.
Currently the top times for a 5K are 14:33 and 14:40 in Canada, so Dozzi is charging for a time between 14:30 and 14:35.
But Dozzi has another key hurtle he’s aiming to conquer first. He’ll rival the best in B.C. at the high school track and field provincials this weekend, and he’s aiming for more records.
He says provincials may be among the fastest ever run at this level, since there are three runners in B.C. who have run under 8:32, the typical time clocked by the provincial winners.
Dozzi intends to organize a record-breaking attempt with his competitors, if they’ll go for it, he said, explaining that if they push their limits together, they’ll all spur each other on.
“We’ll all run personal bests that way probably,” said Dozzi. “We’ll all end off running faster.. and it’s every man for himself once it comes to the end.”
Looking forward to the races, Dozzi says he’s not nervous, just eager.
“I can’t wait,” said Dozzi. “I think I have a pretty good chance of setting personal bests.”
It’s been a phenominal year for Dozzi, who also won provincials in cross country running this fall, and went on to claim the national cross country title.
(For a more detailed article about his most recent track and field record, click here.)
