This will likely not come as a surprise to anyone but unfortunately the decision has been made to postpone the Jan 5th, Bison Grand Prix.
The following update has been provided by U of M Head Coach and meet director Claude Berube.
“As many of you are aware the current Provincial Health Orders do not allow for tournaments until at least January 11th. In the view of many individuals and organizations, including the University of Manitoba, a Track & Field Meet is considered a tournament. For this reason, the Bison Grand Prix # 1 scheduled for January 5th will be postponed until futher notice.
The university team will be hosting a small intersquad competition that evening, therefore there will be no Exclusive Use training time available. This type of competition is permitted according to the guidelines, as it is limited to the university team and alumni only. There will be no spectators allowed at the meet. The university team will be travelling to competitions in mid-January and needs this competition in order to prepare and give an opportunity to athletes to try and attain their travel standards.”
As noted in Claude’s message above, the University of Manitoba team is maintaining their facility booking for that evening, which means there will be no Exclusive Use training time on Wednesday January 5th.
We also wanted to share with the membership that Athletics Manitoba HAS submitted a proposal, through Sport Manitoba to Public Health officials, requesting that a small limited track and field competition be classified as a “game” rather than a “tournament”.
We have not yet received any update on this submission, and as such must abide by the current classification of a track and field competition as a “tournament”.
This fact, combined with the extreme rising case numbers means that any formal/official competitions are on hold for the time being.
Reminders for athletes, coaches and clubs
Stay home if you have any symptoms, get tested as soon as possible, and if you are positive – you must inform all of your close contacts immediately.
Close contacts are the people you were around two days before the start of your symptoms, as well as 10 days after your symptoms develop. This is your period of communicability, when you were most likely to spread COVID-19 to others.
Close contacts are people who you have shared space with during your period of communicability. Specifically, these are people you were within two metres/six feet for a total of 10 minutes over a 24-hour period.
While we understand that there are long waits for test results, and waiting on confirmation can be frustrating, we ask that members stay home if you are a potential close contact of someone waiting for test results. Obviously no one wants to miss training days BUT it is better to miss a few and be safe than the alternative. We can be a bit pro-active here and keep everyone as safe as we can under the circumstances.
Also please ware your masks as much as possible and remember to stay 6ft away from each other. Athletes can certainly continue to train together safely but must remember to keep their distance. ESPECIALLY when masks are off mid-workout
Further updates or clarifications will be provided as they become available.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Stay safe and take care.
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