8 THE VOICE |

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017 |

EDITOR EMELIE PEACOCK

Sportsnews

Runner dazzles at worlds

Young cross-country racer caps record season in Uganda

m By RICA TALAY

ust a year ago Kieran Lumb had

no idea he was going to be com-

peting in the IAAF World Cross

Country Championships in
Kampala, Uganda.

On March 26, Lumb placed 14th

with Team Canada in the under-20

Lumb’s coach Chris Johnson said
he was very pleased with Lumb’s
performance at the champion-
ship.

“I was only surprised at how
quickly it happened, not that it did
happen,” Johnson said.

"T thought it might take a little

longer to reach the accomplish-

men’s —-— — ment he’s

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meteoric . . . oO ge
rise in the | big world championships used to the
y oun g umiil -
UBC races and second ity and heat

dent’ . ‘ in Uganda,
running | imternationalrace. It's | fim had wo
cure | the biggest race I've ever | ‘0 heat ac
big mile raced in.” training at
me, in the — KIERAN LUMB, CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNER
sense it’s

one of my first big world championship
races and second international race,”
Lumb said. “It’s the biggest race I’ve
ever raced in.”

Along with placing 14th in the team
division, 18-year-old Lumb, who is a
freshman at UBC, was the top runner
from Team Canada finishing the eight-
km course in 26:21, placing 54th.

“I was pretty happy with [placing
54th],” Lumb said.

“That’s pretty much the best race I
could’ve run with the pace I ran.”

the Lululemon head- 4
quarters on Cornwall
Ave.

His training con-
sisted of having to run
on a treadmill inside a sau- na
twice a week.

Since the top cross-country runners
come from East African countries,
Lumb said it was intimidating to run
in the same race with some of the best
runners in the world.

"The East African countries are so

dominant that you
kind of have to
realize that it's
not a race against
them but it's a
race against the

people around
you,” Lumb said.
Len Catling,

the media spokes-
person for

UBC’s department of athletics and
recreation, said he was surprised at how
quickly Lumb’s has risen to success.

“We're very excited that he’s going to
be running for UBC for the next four to
five years," Cating said.

Besides being a cross country runner,
Lumb is also working towards getting a
degree in engineering.

“Sometimes when school gets hard I
wish I could just be doing school right
now and not think about running and
sometimes when running is going re-
ally well I wish I could just do running,”

Lumb said. "But I’m really glad that I
have that balance."

Coming from an athletic
family, Lumb was intro-
duced to skiing at the

age of five and up
until this year his
main sport was

cross country
skiing.

According to

Johnson, — what’s

next for Lumb is
to try to qualify for
the National Association
of Intercollegiate Athletics
Outdoor Track & Field National

Championship in May. Right now,
recovering from the world champion-
ship is the main concern.

Adventurers in
the backcountry
are more aware
and prepared

® By JASON GILDER

he snowy conditions caught
many Vancouverites by sur-
prise, but backcountry skiers

and snowboarders were well-equipped
for this season’s weather.

Although this winter brought un-
usual amounts of snowfall, accidents
and injuries on the backcountry of lo-
cal mountains did not see an uptick.
Despite Canadian snowboarding star
Mark McMorris’ severe accident in
Whistler on Saturday, backcountry in-
cidents are falling even as the popularity
of these activities rises.

Mike Danks, team leader of North
Shore Rescue, said they did not receive
as many emergency calls as they ex-
pected with this season’s snowfall. He
attributes the low rate of incidents to
the preparedness of Vancouver's back-
country skiers and snowboarders.

“They usually prepare themselves,”
Danks said. “They have their avalanche

“It's become a
cultural norm to go
out with...equipment
and be prepared.”

— JAMES FLOYER, FORECASTING PROGRAM

SUPERVISOR, AVALANCHE CANADA

safety equipment, an idea of where they
are going and they've let somebody

Members of North Shore Rescue performing a rescue on the North Shore
mountains, one of 11 calls they got this winter season. sugiiTTED PHOTO

know where they are going.”

North Shore Rescue received 11
calls involving skiers and snowboarders
this winter, of these two were medical
calls and one was a buried backcoun-
try skier on Cypress Mountain who
suffered multiple injuries. Avalanche
Canada, who track fatalities, had only

one person killed in an avalanche in

the Callaghan Valley this season. Two
snowshoers who went missing around
Cypress Mountain in January have still
not been found.

Backcountry activities are increasing-
ly popular, at the same time there has
been a slight decrease in fatalities from
avalanches according to James Floyer,
forecasting program supervisor at Ava-

lanche Canada. Floyer and others in
the industry say this is due to increased
awareness and preparedness.

“There’s a lot more people out there
and fewer accidents,” said Paul Steele,
owner of Backcountry Skiing Canada.
“That’s a good thing that people are
getting educated.”

In his work with Avalanche Canada,
Floyer has seen a culture shift happen
over the past ten years.

“People are more aware, typically,
and they typically have access to better
equipment and it’s become a cultural
norm to go out with that equipment
and be prepared,” Floyer said.

Wilson Edgar, president of the BC
Mountaineers Club, has advice for any-
one considering participating in back-
country skiing and snowboarding.

“We hope that when people go out
into the backcountry, they take the ap-
propriate courses and that they carry
the appropriate gear to ensure their own

safety,” Edgar said.

SAFETY TIPS

BACKCOUNTRY PREPAREDNESS

1. Check forecast
Know the conditions where you
are going and be prepared.

2. Get the gear

Each person should have the
essential avalanche equipment
to perform a rescue; avalanche
transceiver, probe and shovel.

3. Get training
Avalanche Canada advises to
take a two-day avalanche skills-
training course to get the basics.

SOURCE: AVALANCHE CANADA

Thrill
seekers
to speak
in North
Van

TED talks style event to
feature local legends in
adventure, expedition
and extreme sports

= By SYDNEY MORTON

former triathlete battling
Lyme disease is one of the
speakers at FEAT Canada, a

evening of speeches for adventure seek-
ers.

Kirsten Sweetland, an Olympic tri-
athlete began her career at seven years
old, and mountain climber Greg Fow-
eraker are two of nine accomplished
speakers who will share their journeys
pursuing their dreams at a March 30
FEAT Canada, which stands for Fasci-
nating Expedition & Adventure Talks.

Over Sweetland’s 20-year career as a
triathlete she has faced several setbacks,
most recently a diagnosis of Lyme dis-
ease resulting in her retirement from
triathlon competitions. Sweetland said
she remains positive and focuses on
what she can still do, such as mountain
biking, instead of what she no longer
can.

“One of the things I am trying to

“Maybe I can inspire
people to take
things in stride and
help consider how to
take a setback.”

— KIRSTEN SWEETLAND, SPEAKER

drive home is that things like this don’t
have to be a sentence, and maybe I can
inspire people to take things in stride,
and help consider how to take a set-
back,” Sweetland said.

Foweraker finds inspiration from
the way new generations build upon
what past generations have, to rework
it to something better. Foweraker has
climbed all over the world and is cel-
ebrated for several first ascents. He will
speak at FEAT Canada in the hopes of
passing on his knowledge to inspire the
next generation's imagination.

“Climbing is a
metaphor for a cre-
ative endeavour and
I have always liked
how one generation
imagines something
and then 10 years
later the next gen-
eration comes and
ups the game,” Fow-
eraker said.

Sean Verret,
founder of FEAT Canada, started the
series to inspire the audience to chal-
lenge themselves and learn from regular
people that have done amazing things
in their lifetimes.

“It gets people off the couch and gets
them out experiencing some amazing
talks, for the speakers it helps them
with storytelling, sometimes with our
digital worlds we don’t get out and tell
stories anymore,” Verret said. “It’s a

slightly different type of event and it’s

Kirsten Sweetland
FEAT SPEAKER