Jamcan International Athletics Club

Jamcan Women's Record Setting 4x200m Relay Team at Ontario Indoor Championships 2019

Jamcan Women Featured in Bang Fitness Article - Eight Essential Guidelines for Masters Athletes

Masters athletes are a special breed. It’s one thing to train and compete when you feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof (and live in your parents’ basement). It’s another thing to balance family, professional obligations on top of a cranky body. You have to stay adaptable and open-minded about what will continue to carry you forward as a competitor. That’s why I put together these guidelines....(Read More)

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Andrew Bass - Jamcan Athletics

Defying Gravity and Age

Andrew Bass, 51, teams up with Peak Fitness trainer to
become a world class masters long jumper

KITCHENER — Andrew Bass wants to long jump his way
to Italy. The fact that he is 51-years-old isn’t holding him back.
The Kitchener resident started training in long jumping after
his wife Lillian introduced him to her personal trainer, Jason
Droppert of Peak Fitness in Waterloo last year.
Having not competed in a sport against anyone since his track
days in high school, Bass wanted to focus his training so that
he could participate in Ontario Masters Athletics, a track and field
circuit for athletes 35-and-older.
He finished last when he debuted in January but he stuck with it
and ended up winning both the Ontario and Canadian Masters
Indoor Athletic Championships in the 50-to-55-year-old long
jumping division.
In August, he ventured to Saint John, N.B. and won the North,
Central American and Caribbean.

World Masters Athletics/Canadian Masters Athletics Championships held outdoors. Now he has his sights set on a potential trip to the Torino 2013 World Masters Games in August of next year.
“You can do all kinds of training, but when you have something to work towards it adds a little interest,” Bass says. “With Jason’s background in track and field, we figured why not give it a shot?”
The first step was for Droppert, a former Canadian national javelin team member, and Bass to decide on an event that was well-suited for him. They started with sprinting, but it simply took too much out of Bass. Droppert noticed that Bass, who had built up a reasonable amount of strength in his legs through cycling recreationally, had an innate ability to jump, which isn’t as easy to teach compared to sprinting, according to Droppert. That doesn’t mean Bass picked up everything right away. “I don’t think he appreciated how step-by-step he actually had to break it down for me, like the technique,” Bass says. “You might think you can just run down and leap but you can’t, it takes a lot of training.” In September 2011, they started working out three times a week using plyometrics, resistance bands, and foot work exercises, such as running the ladder to prepare him. “There’s definitely some mornings when you have to haul yourself out of bed, and some days when you’re not as strong as you feel,” Bass says. “There’s also days when you don’t feel that great coming in but you leave three feet off the ground.”
Bass jumped 4.85 metres to finish fifth out of five of competitors at his first Ontario Masters Athletics mini-meet in January earlier this year. By the time he competed at the Ontario Masters Athletics Indoor Championship at York University in late February he had improved to more than five metres.
He achieved a personal best jump of 5.16 metres at the Canadian Masters Athletics Indoor Championships in March, a mark he has been unable to surpass since then. “I look back on this last year and there are certain
things I want to improve on,” Bass says. “It comes down to foot work, quite a lot of it at the jumping stage. I’d like to increase my distance and speed coming into the pit which I think will with all the training I’ve been
doing.” Bass, who left Angstrom Engineering in September after starting the Kitchener company more than 20 years ago, has been working with more weights to increase the strength in his legs. Bass also started running more this month in advance of going to York University in January to practice jumping in preparation for indoor season, which begins Jan. 20. “He’s one of those kinds of people who are just all on-board,” says Droppert, 33, who opened Peak Fitness in 2003 and does one-on-one training with a wide range of people. “If you have to force him to do something it’s usually to just take a day off.” Bass will pay to enter himself in the Torino 2013 World Masters Games if he can be competitive enough to make the journey worthwhile. To him that means reaching five-and-a-half-metres by the time the Canadian Masters Indoor Championships roll around in March. The competitions are always fun and full of camaraderie among the athletes says Bass. He adds that he believes it’s simply a smart investment to stay in shape. “It’s cheaper to spend money now then on prescriptions and medications 20 years from now,” he says. “”You’re investing in your future and you just enjoy things so much more.” The Torino 2013 World Masters Games take place Aug. 2-11.

Kerry Smith

Kerry Smith - Athlete

Kerry has competed in Masters athletics sprinting at the world level since Buffalo WMA Championships in 1995, and up to Lyon in 2015. Over these 20 years, he participated in 9 world championships, making it to the finals 13 times, amassing a total of 2 gold, 5 silver, and 2 bronze medals. He presently holds 3 Canadian records – including M55 200 metres outdoors at age 51, in 23.21 and M50 60 metres indoors at age 52, in 7.35. This year, he was part of a 4 by 200 relay setting a Canadian record. And that is at age 61, with M50 team-mates. He also holds a combination of 11 meet records at Ontario and Canadian Masters Indoor and Outdoor Championships, the most recent being this year, running 7.99 in the 60 metres. Perhaps more importantly, Kerry has also given back to our sport, by coaching kids, sports teams, and masters athletes, with various clubs and privately, for almost 20 years. We think he is a worthy addition to the OMA Hall of Fame for 2015.

Stats for Kerry Smith as of 2015

• 2010 Mississauga Masters Athlete of the Year

• OMA Male AOTY in 2006

• 100m M55 all time rankings just outside of top 20 with 11.81 from June 30, 2009

• 100m M50 all time rankings 19th on list with 11.42 from 2005

Present Canadian Records

• M50 200 m outdoors age 51 23.21 in 2005

• M50 60 m indoors March 06 Austria 7.35

• M55 60m indoors Feb 09 Toronto 7.54

• M50 4x200 indoor relay (at age 61)

OMA Indoor Championships Meet Records

60m

M50 7.38 Kerry Smith 06

M55 7.75 Kerry Smith 11

M60 7.99 Kerry Smith 15 200m

M45 23.87 Kerry Smith 99

M50 24.33 Kerry Smith 04

OMA Outdoor Championships Meet Records

100m

M50 Kerry Smith 11.59 06

M55 Kerry Smith 12.02 09 200m

M50 Kerry Smith 23.50 06

M55 Kerry Smith 24.50 09

CMA Outdoor Championships Meet Records

200m

M50 Smith, Kerry ON 23.63 Toronto 2005

M60 Powell, Tony ON 25.72 Toronto 2005

Kerry Smith ON 25.72 Toronto 2014

Results at World Championships:

• Lahti 2009: 100 S, 200 S

• Linz 2006: 60m G, 200m G

• Riccione 2005: 100 B

• Donostia 2005: 100 S CR, 200 S CR

• Brisbane 2001: 100 4th

• Gateshead 1999: 100 4th, 200 S

• Durban 1997: 100 B CR, 200 4th CR

• Buffalo 1995: 100 7th • Lyon 2015: 100m 8th

• Canadian National Sprint Team Member

• Full Athletic Scholarship to University of Texas (Austin) in Track & Field

• played in CFL (Toronto, Hamilton, Saskatchewan) from 1977-1982 as a wide receive