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Kellen Forrest
Dinos Athletics
The quickest man in Canadian college monitor & area historical past is headed to the Dinos Corridor of Fame.
Sam Effah (BComm ’14), who nonetheless holds the convention and nationwide data within the 60 metres, enters the Class of 2024 as one of the vital adorned male U SPORTS monitor and area athletes of all time.
However Effah’s unimaginable profession was near not being a actuality if it weren’t for former Dinos sprints coach Brenda Van Tighem.
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“On the time, I didn’t actually have a ton of path,” Effah mentioned of Van Tighem’s recruitment. “I didn’t know what I used to be even going to take if I had been to even get into college. So to have her form of say, ‘Hey, I see the abilities in you. I see, the potential that you’ve,’ was sort of my first path to high-performance sport.”
Van Tighem’s imaginative and prescient was the College of Calgary’s acquire.
Over his 5 years with the Dinos monitor and area program, Effah claimed 24 medals between convention and nationwide championships – an unimaginable 17 of which had been gold.
Effah was additionally awarded U SPORTS Male Observe & Subject Athlete of the 12 months 4 occasions: 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
Whereas he had no scarcity of awards and accolades throughout his time as a Dino, one second stands out above the remainder.
“Once I broke the Canadian college document, that for me was the very best second,” Effah mentioned.
The Dinos monitor star set the 60-metre document on the 2010 nationwide championships when he ran 6.57. And he did it with one thing to show.
“It was the yr after an Olympics, and I didn’t make it, however there have been Olympians that had been competing on the nationwide championships,” Effah mentioned. “That race for me was form of proving to myself that I’m succesful. And I feel by persevering with to nonetheless have that document now, it simply goes to indicate that help I had, but additionally the coaching was there.”
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Effah would use that as a springboard to do nice issues each on and off the monitor. He was a staple of the Canadian nationwide monitor crew, competing at each the Commonwealth Video games (2010, 2014, 2018) and World Observe and Subject Championships (2009, 2011, 2013) for the crimson and white.
Effah’s resume off the monitor contains being named co-Chef de Mission for the 2022 Commonwealth Video games, being a 2019 The Wonderful Race Canada participant, inspiring crowds as a keynote speaker and way more. And he’ll be the primary to confess he wouldn’t be the place he’s now with out his time on the College of Calgary.
“I felt like I used to be a stronger particular person on this planet due to what I had gone by means of and the those who surrounded me,” Effah mentioned of his time with the Dinos. “I form of introduced that very same mentality exterior of simply the game into all the things that I touched on. So it simply constructed me into the individual that I’m, and I’m tremendous grateful for going to have gone by means of the route that I did.”
Effah was fast to credit score all of his Dinos coaches and teammates for serving to him accomplish all that he did, together with a fellow 2024 inductee in Les Gramantik. However he additionally needed to verify to offer a particular thanks to one in all his former teammates, Nigel Joseph, who tragically handed away late final yr after shedding his battle with most cancers.
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“Once I began monitor, (Joseph) was any individual who actually took me below his wing. He sort of gave me the arrogance to maintain pushing. He believed in me,” Effah mentioned. “We’re all Dinos, and he undoubtedly embodied that. And you recognize, all through my monitor profession as a Dino, internationally after which onto the world stage, I saved that robust with me.”
Effah continues to embrace the “We’re all Dinos” mentality that Joseph embodied to this present day and couldn’t be extra proud to be honoured alongside the unimaginable 5 different people named to the 2024 Dinos Corridor of Fame class.
“There’s no person slacking on this listing,” Effah mentioned of the 2024 class. “And I feel to be within the presence of this calibre of expertise, it’s an superior feeling. It simply reaffirms that the Dinos are usually not solely doing nice issues in sport, however we’re leaving robust legacies behind.”
Effah and the remainder of the 2024 class might be formally inducted into the Dinos Corridor of Fame on Oct. 28.
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