A pair of South Surrey high-jumpers have been tagged as future Canadian Olympians by Athletics Canada.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Semiahmoo Secondary’s Alexa Porpaczy and Django Lovett – who grew up in Langley and currently calls South Surrey home – were named to Athletics Canada’s NextGen “Athlete Pathways” program, which aims to identify high-performance athletes and aid in their development with an eye toward future international competition, such as world championships and Olympic Games.
Both Porpaczy and Lovett – as well as Coquitlam’s Eric Chatten, who was also named to the program – are members of the Valley Royals Track Club.
Lovett, who graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2016, is listed as a ‘Tier 1′ athlete in the NextGen program, meaning he is, according to a Valley Royals’ news release, “an estimated five to six years away from the podium” at an elite international competition, while Chatten earned a ‘Tier 2’ designation and is considered about seven years away.
Porpaczy, the youngest of the Royals’ three athletes, has been appointed as a ‘Tier 3’ athlete, an estimated eight years from podium contention – or put another way, two Summer Olympic cycles. The appointment is the latest in a string of accolades and achievements for the Semiahmoo track star. Porpaczy is a multiple-time gold medallist at B.C. High School Track and Field Championships, won gold at the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays last spring, represented Canada at the Youth Commonwealth Games in the Bahamas and also finished atop the high-jump podium at 2017 Canadian Legion Championships in Brandon, Man. in August.
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