July 26: Jacqueline Rennebohm set to compete at nationals in Toronto, chasing national standard to qualify for 2011 games in New Zealand with goal of Paralympics in London in 2012
LONDON, Ont. - Jacqueline Rennebohm, a para-athlete and Mustangs varsity competitor in track and field, set a Canadian record in the 200m at the annual international Boiling Point meet in Windsor, Ont., on July 10.
Held at Alumni Stadium, Rennebohm placed first in the race and set the national record with a time of 28.60 seconds, beating the old record of 28.83.
"Jacqueline ran three great races," said club coach John Stevenson, of London-Western track and field. "The record was set in an overwhelming race that surprised all watching the performance."
Rennebohm is visually impaired and competes in the T-12 classification of vision. She can only see objects five feet away - and even then she can only see colour and motion.
Since March, she has been working with a running guide - two-sport Mustangs student-athlete Simon Hodge who competes at Western in cross country and track and field - and she attributes her record to a great partnership on the track.
"Top of mind for me is all the support I've had from coaches and athletes at the club, varsity and national team level," she said. "I have great people around me... Simon, especially, has been great to work with."
Rennebohm, whose macular (eyesight) degeneration comes from complications with Cone-Rodd Dystrophy, will be entering her second year of competition with Western in the OUA and CIS in the late fall of 2010 while studying toward a social sciences degree in environmental health.
A native of Regina, Sask., Rennebohm has a goal set to qualify for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, England - and what is even more notable about this is that, if successful, it would be her second consecutive Paralympics. It would also be while competing at the highest level in a second sport.
She represented Canada at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games as a Paralympic swimmer - she is now retired from aquatics after nine years of swimming competition. As a competitive swimmer, Rennebohm competed in the 50 and 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 100m breaststroke, and 200m IM, with the freestyle and butterfly being her top events.
"Sometimes when you switch sports you tend to leave behind untold stories," she said upon her return to London for a brief stop after training in Ottawa and getting ready for a trip to Toronto for the national championships next week.
"I am very proud of my swimming past, it helped me having the dedication and knowing what it takes to be the best I can be," she said.
Now Rennebohm has her sights set on meeting the standard to qualify for the 2011 world championships in New Zealand.
Rennebohm said she credits the great coaching throughout her sporting life and openness of the Western coaches and student-athletes with her smooth transition from the water to the track.
With a a great week leading up to her record-setting performance, Rennebohm shattered her previous personal-best time.
Two days prior to Boiling Point, Rennebohm beat her previous personal best of 29.8 seconds at the Windsor Twilight Meet with a time of 29.39 seconds.
"It was a big surprise, that's what made it that much more sweet was putting it on the line and having that shock," she said of her performance at Boiling Point. "It made me so happy."
"I'm more for plugging away for best times personally and getting closer and getting closer to our goal," Rennebohm said. "A Canadian standard is great and it can only get better. That record is special, but that's OK if someone beats it down the road. We want our country to keep getting better and becoming the best in the world."
Rennebohm credits the smooth communication on helping to set the record.
"I rely on calls from Simon on when to turn, where the bend is, when the track straightens out, or when someone is making a move," Rennebohm explained, adding that competitors run in two-lanes.
Prior to teaming up with Hodge in March, 2010, Rennebohm trained on her own with club and varsity athletes and "relied a lot on teammates to give visual cues and let me know what was going on the track."
"There were so many athletes in varsity who helped me and I met Simon there," she said. "We've just clicked. It was a special moment to set that record. In my sense, I can't see expression but boy could I could feel it. He told me 'I think we got it, we ran such a great time' and then when he (Simon) told me what we got for an official time, I was beaming."
"It was just awesome and a killer best time," she said. "And to have a Canadian record is such a great feeling and will help us to our end goal of 2012. We are pushing the bar for ourselves and for Canada.
This, of course, would not have been possible had Rennebohm not approached Mustangs track and field head coach about joining the team.
"I approached Vickie Croley and she influenced me throughout the year and had confidence in me," Rennebohm said. "I tried my best in practices and tried to live up to expectations of coaches and teammates."
"I am very appreciative of Vickie and the rest of the varsity coaching staff, letting a blind athlete run with their varsity team."
Rennebohm has seen ups and downs while managing her visual impairment. While competing as a para-athlete in swimming, she said her vision loss was halted for a period of time but has returned in the past three years.
"I started to see vision loss again a couple of years ago. But for me I was on the right path," she said. "I still continue competing in sport today for the enjoyment and how much it's given back to me and given me the ability to push myself as far as one can possibly go."
"Despite all the challenges and despite the stereotypes I face I still love sports. And the record and the wow factor that came with it, what a great feeling."
One constant with Rennebohm is her credit to those around her.
"It takes more than just one person to run a record-setting time," she said. "For me it takes Simon, my coaches, teammates, both club and varsity, staff and supporters. If we didn't train together it might not have happened. We push each other and that pushes me to be at my best."