Team Canada includes Lancers for international competition
By Julie Sobowale
Sports Editor
August 8, 2007
 One current and one former Lancer track and field athlete will join 19 other student-athletes in competing at the 2007 Summer Universiade in Bangkok, Thailand from August 8-18. Jamie Adjetey-Nelson and Derek Watkins were named on the Canadian team. Lancer track and field Assistant Head Coach Brent Lumley will also serve as the jumps coach for Team Canada.
The Summer Universiade is held every two years by the University International Sports Federation (FISU) and is one of the top international sporting events for athletics. According to Claude Bérubé, head coach of the Canadian team, the event will be used by some athletes as warm-up for the World Championships held in Osaka, Japan later this month.
Adjetey-Nelson recently earned a new personal best in the men’s decathlon at the RBC Canadian Track and Field Championships held this past July. He finished the competition with 7,460 points for the bronze medal.
Last year he also finished third overall with 6648 points and in 2004 he finished second with 7181 points.
This year’s success is a continuation of Adjetey-Nelson’s turnaround from injury. After battling an ankle injury in 2006, Adjetey-Nelson won the title in the men’s pentathlon at the Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS) Indoor Track and Field Championships earlier this March and also took home the silver medal in the men’s long jump.
Derek Watkins benefited as well with a solid performance at the RBC nationals. He finished third in the men’s high jump with a jump of 2.18m, his best performance of the year. Watkins is a former Lancer athlete before transferring to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. As a former member of the Canadian team at the World University Games and a high-ranking NCAA jumper, Watkins has experience in tight competition. This year he won the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) title in the men’s high jump and also at the CIS championships. He also won the CIS title in the men’s triple jump.
At the 2005 Summer Universiade, the Canadian team took home two silver medals in the men’s 5000m and men’s 110m hurdles. University of Windsor graduate Ryan McKenzie also competed in this event.
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