Rachel Francois of St. Albert will run the women’s 800 metres Saturday at the Edmonton International Track Classic at Foote Field.
The EITC is the third and the largest of five stops in the 2013 National Track League series.
Three of the eight 800m runners in the EITC field with Francois have personal best times under two minutes.
Her PB in the 800m is 2:03.97.
Francois has attended Olympic team camps twice as a senior athlete and once as part of a junior development group.
The Paul Kane High School alumna was put into Canada’s athletic assistance carding program and was added as a 2016 development athlete with the Canadian Olympic team after last year’s success as the Canadian Interuniversity Sport female rookie of the year and 600-metre champion with the University of Victoria Vikes.
Francois, 20, repeated as the 600m gold medallist at the 2013 CIS championships in Edmonton with a PB of 1:29.69 after going 1:30.19 the previous year in Winnipeg.
Francois also set the Alberta high school intermediate 800m record of 2:12.89 in 2010. Four of her five high school provincial medals were gold with Paul Kane.
Her dad, Andre, was the first male to compete in the 200m for the Caribbean islands Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Tonight the St. Albert Junior Cardinals host the Edmonton Indians in the North Central Alberta Baseball League.
The first pitch is 7:15 p.m. at Legion Memorial park.
Tuesday the Cardinals were scheduled to play the Edmonton Warriors in St. Albert, but the score was unavailable at press time.
The Cardinals are 4-4 in their first NCABL season.
Last weekend the Cardinals finished 1-3 at the 10th annual Peter DeVries Invitational Tournament.
After shutout losses of 20-0 to SEEBA 1, the tournament champions, and 18-0 to the runner-up Spruce Grove White Sox, the Cardinals fell 3-2 to the midget AAA St. Albert team and in the consolation side posted a 15-5 win over SEEBA 2.
Players of the game were Nathan Coffin against SEEBA 1, Colin Hodgson against Spruce Grove, McLean Cruthers against St. Albert and Jay Florovich against SEEBA 2.
The following Fastball St. Albert teams medaled at the Edmonton Youth Softball Association city finals last weekend.
U10 C St. Albert: gold
U10 A St. Albert Falcons boys: gold
U12 B St. Albert Angels: silver
U14 C St. Albert Angels: silver
U14 A St. Albert Angels: bronze
U14 B St. Albert Angels: bronze
U16 St. Albert Angels: bronze
The U10 A, U12 B, U14 B, U14 A and U16 A Angels are now heading to provincials.
The St. Albert Pride, a U16 bantam team not affiliated with Fastball St. Albert, were victorious at the EYSA city finals and defeated the Edmonton River City Hurricanes 14-6 for the gold.
Tessa Doblanko was awarded a sportsmanship trophy.
In league play the Pride were 8-0-3.
The Pride also finished top four in the 11-team Girls Prairie League Softball standings at 7-4.
At the GPLS championship weekend that was cut short by rain, the Pride went 1-1 in the modified draw, losing to the team that took first place.
The Pride also finished second in the U16 A division of the Calgary Women’s Fastball Association tournament at 2-1-1 and in the A final lost 6-3 to Red Deer.
Up next for the Pride is the A provincials July 12 to 14 in Stony Plain.
Meanwhile, the Fastball St. Albert U8 coach/pitch tournament was held last weekend at Mission Diamond and the order of finish was Jaguars No. 1, Blue Diamonds No. 2, Blue Birds No. 3 and the Green Hornets No. 4.
The Fort McMurray Knights handed St. Albert’s second division team its third loss in a row in the Edmonton Rugby Union, 41-17 Saturday at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
The Knights led 10-5 at halftime. New Zealand import Sam Norris jumped on a blocked kick by the seconds in the try area for points.
After the Knights converted a try two minutes into the second half, Travis Brenneis ripped up the pitch for a try and Luke Richardson made the conversion.
It was 34-12 when Nathan Reis finished off a quick lineout ball that caught the Knights by surprise.
The Knights finished the match with seven tries and three conversions.
The Knights (2-3) have only one ERU team and the line-up for the St. Albert second 15 was basically the third division team doing double duty as the seconds.
The seconds (2-3) are back on the pitch July 6 against the Strathcona Druids (1-4) at 2 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
