A handful of Peninsula athletes are heading south next week, to hone their high-jump skills at the West Hub National Team Training Camp.
The foursome – Semiahmoo Secondary’s Alexa Porpaczy, Elgin’s Joel Della Siega, 2012 Olympian Mike Mason and South Surrey’s Django Lovett, whose accomplishments include a gold-medal finish at the 2013 Canada Summer Games – leave Monday (Feb. 1) to spend two weeks at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Centre in California, preparing for competitions this summer.
Porpaczy, who won gold at nationals and a provincial gold hat-trick in 2015, and Della Siega, a provincial gold medalist, have their sights set on the Junior World Championships in Poland.
Lovett and Mason – who placed first and second in the Jan. 16 indoor track opener at the University of Washington Indoor Preview – are aiming to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics, set for August.
All four – dubbed Ziggy’s Air Force, for coach Zbigniew Szelagowicz – are to compete this weekend at the UW Open before flying out.
Lovett, 23, who recently graduated from the University of New Mexico after winning a full athletic scholarship, has also launched a gofundme campaign to help with his track-related training expenses, including the cost of flying to San Diego next week. He’s hoping to raise $10,000 for the year ahead; as of Wednesday, donations had reached $995.
