Press Release
As we approach The Jerome Classic set for Swangard Stadium on June 15, Canada’s track and field athletes are in the final phases of their attack on the tough Olympic Games qualifying standards. The National Track and Field Tour organized by Athletics Canada provides almost 10 meets across the country to provide opportunities for Canadian and international athletes on the bubble to improve their world rankings.
Vancouver’s Kieran Lumb is yet to achieve the IOC qualification mark of 3:33.50 in the 1500m but his time of 3:34.41 ranks him 36th out of 45 starting positions. Kieran’s qualifying position is open to displacement until the closing date of June 30th. He is currently set to run the 800m at The Jerome Classic along with Charles Philibert-Thiboutot of Quebec City who has run the 1500 standard with his 3:33.29 in Chorzow, Poland on July 16, 2023. Their choice of events in The Jerome Classic may not be confirmed until the final hours before the start.
Tickets and further information available at thejeromeclassic.ca
Postmedia story on Kieran follows.
Runner Kieran Lumb is on the road to success
By Ursula Leonowicz • Postmedia Content Works
Irrespective of the starting point, every individual is on a unique journey in life. For middle and long-distance runner Kieran Lumb, this journey entails a passionate pursuit: to represent his home country at the upcoming games this summer.
“It would be really special to represent Canada,” says Lumb, who broke two records in 2023 and won the Canadian National Championship and the Canadian Cross Country Championships.
“Making it to Paris is definitely the goal. It’s never something that’s guaranteed and it doesn’t come around very often, so you’ve got to make the most of it.”
Lumb, who started cross-country skiing in high school, transitioned to running partly because of the weather in Vancouver — where snow is rare, even in the winter — but also because of the opportunities it provided.
After juggling both running and skiing during high school and completing a particularly intense season of dry land training, Lumb was approached by a coach at the University of British Columbia (UBC) who suggested that he apply himself solely to running.
“I think that the stability going to university provided, where I could balance both academics and athletics, was really important to me,” he explains. “The same opportunity was not necessarily had in cross-country skiing, so, that’s how I started running more seriously.”
After finishing at UBC, Lumb still had some collegiate credit remaining, so he decided to attend the University of Washington in Seattle, where he developed as a runner and pursued a Master of Science in Information Systems.
It was at this time that he was introduced to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), an experience that opened his eyes to new possibilities. Lumb was also offered a partnership with On, the pioneering Swiss-engineered athletic brand, which proved to be equally life-changing.
“When I was finishing university and transitioning from the collegiate running scene to professional running, the flexibility to stay with my college coach, Andy Powell, was really enticing because I had developed a really good rapport with him. That’s one of the reasons I went with On; they gave me the flexibility to continue using that collegiate set-up,” says Lumb……
“I was happy to win the Canadian nationals this summer in the 15 and get my senior national title, as well as a couple of Canadian records. It means a lot to me.
“Each race is a stepping stone to the future, and I try to not put too much weight on any one race, even though some of them stand out,” he says.
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The Vancouver International Marathon Society RUNVAN® is a non-profit that organizes the First Half presented by BlueShore Financial, BMO Vancouver Marathon, the Jerome Classic, Granville Island Turkey Trot and Great Trek presented by BlueShore Financial. runvan.org/races
