Saturday night at the track is back.
The Victoria Track Series returns for its second full season beginning Saturday, May 14, at its new venue, the University of Victoria’s Centennial Stadium.
First race starts at 6:30 p.m.
Under local race enthusiast Chris Kelsall’s watch, VTS has grown from two standalone events at Oak Bay High in 2009 to eight last year.
VTS has gained enough traction that four of the eight meets for 2011 will be held at UVic, the other four on Oak Bay’s Jack Wallace Memorial track. The series runs four months, culminating Saturday, Aug. 27.
Highlighting this weekend’s opener is an attempt at the Canadian record for the 4 x 800 metre relay by a group of four 50-year old males. The current time is nine minutes, 20 seconds, meaning each will need to perform a time of 2:20 around the track, a doable but challenging feat, Kelsall said.
Also being contested Saturday evening are the 400m, 800m and 1,500m distances.
Anchoring the growing legitimacy of the VTS is attendance of B.C. Athletics at all eight events this year. The governing body of the sport of athletics for the province of B.C. will be there to sanction any records, should they be set.
Last year, six Canadian age-group records were set at VTS events.
For more information, visit www.victoriatrackseries.ca.
VTS summer sked
Centennial Stadium
May 14: 400, 800 & 1,500mMay 28: 400, 800, 1,500, 3,000 & 2,000mJune 18: 400, Mile & 5,000mJuly 9: 400, 800, 3,000m
Jack Wallace Memorial
June 4: 800 & 1,500mJuly 23: 1,500 & 5,000mAug. 13: 800 & 3,000mAug. 27: 5,000m & 10,000m
