Kelsey Balkwill slipped away from the track only briefly on Saturday.
Fresh off a gold-medal performance for the University of Windsor Lancers in the women’s 600 metres at the OUA track and field championships, the 25-year-old Balkwill had some packing to do. She was just hours away from catching a flight to compete for Canada at the IAAF world indoor track and field championships in Birmingham, England.
Balkwill, who is from South Woodslee, packed and then quickly headed back to the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse to celebrate with her Windsor teammates after a silver-medal team performance – the Lancers’ first team podium finish since 2012.
“I didn’t even finish packing because I was trying to focus on my two races,” said Balkwill, who also won the women’s 300 metres.
The celebration was short as she headed to England to prepare to compete in the women’s 400 metres. She is one of 38 athletes from 26 countries that will begin racing in the preliminaries on Friday.
Balkwill met Athletics Canada’s qualifying standard by running the 400 metres in 53.15 at Clemson University in late January. A few weeks later, she bettered the mark by running 52.64 in Arkansas.
“With us, a goal is to continue to be involved in elite-level competition,” said Kurt Downes, who has coached Balkwill since Grade 8 and continues to with the Lancers and Border City Athletic Club.
An Essex high school product, Balkwill battled hip and foot injuries during her time at the University of Miami. She’s stayed healthy for the past few seasons, but Downes says it’s still a building process for her.
“We’ve gone through a little transformation,” Downes said. “There was a thought when she came back (from Miami) to set goals for the (2016) Olympics right away, but one of the things she’s not had a lot of years of being consistently healthy.
Balkwill has two years of eligibility with the Lancers as she works on a Master’s degree in sports science.
Competing in the 60 metes, 300 metres and 600 metres had helped her with her work in the 400 metres.
But while she’s always competed in the 400 metres, Balkwill has always been viewed as a 400-metre hurdler and she’s not given up on that.
“I do hurdle I hurdle every week in practice,” said Balkwill, who still has her eyes set on the 2020 Olympic Games. “Outdoors, I’ll get back to it, but right now I’m trying to focus on this here.