The 100-metre dash has always been considered one of the marquee events of any track and field competition. During the race for women aged 70-74 at the 2010 North Central Caribbean World Masters Championships, Christa Bortignon of West Vancouver was leading with less than 10 metres to go.

“It was an extremely hot day and the track was made of a funny surface that was more like a carpet underlay,” she says. “With five metres to go, I stumbled and fell flat on my face. Despite the fall, I picked myself up and still won the bronze medal.”
An amazing result, given the circumstances, but not as amazing as Christa’s meteoric rise to success in the competitive world of track and field.

Not much of an active participant in athletics while growing up, Christa obviously had great potential as was revealed in her results later in life. Her first opportunity to display her athletic prowess happened after she moved to Vancouver in 1981 with her two children. Divorced and in her 40s, she decided to try her hand at tennis.

“There are a lot of people who play in Stanley Park who think they own the courts,” says Christa. “I saw this guy practising by hitting balls against a wall and asked him if he wanted to rally. He said, ‘Why not?’ and we immediately hit it off. We’ve been married for 26 years now.”
For the better part of the past quarter century, Christa has competed in tennis tournaments and has done very well, winning 13 of them, including two age-group victories in the Stanley Park Open. Unfortunately, she developed osteoarthritis in her wrists along the way. She kept playing, however, until the arthritis bothered her to the point where she was unable to play two days in a row.

Needing to find a different activity, Christa chanced across a story about a record-setting senior track and field athlete named Olga Kotelko. Christa contacted Olga and the two women met.

“Two days later, Olga asked me to sign up to compete in the Canadian Masters Track and Field Championships, which were being held in Kamloops in July 2009,” Christa recalls. “She kept pushing me, and I thought it would be a nice trip up to the Okanagan, so I signed up. When we got there, I looked around and saw how all the other athletes were dressed and all the equipment they had, and I decided to pull out. My husband talked me into staying, telling me I might as well compete since we had come all the way there.”

That decision led to Christa becoming an “overnight sensation” at the age of 72. With only two weeks of training and no coaching, Christa found herself about to enter her first track meet since her school days. Her first event was the long jump and on her first attempt, she set a B.C. record for her age group. Eventually, she had to settle for silver as another competitor did her one better, but it was a formidable start.
Next up was the 100-metre race and Christa instantly realized she had much to learn. “I didn’t know how to use the starters blocks and watched what the others were doing,” she says. “I had never run a 100-metre race and I couldn’t see the finish line, so I asked the official how far the race was. He held his hands apart and said, ‘This is one metre. You run 100 of them.’ My time was under 19 seconds, which was very respectable for my first try.”

That September, Christa competed in the B.C. Senior Games in Richmond, entering the same two events along with the high jump, shot put and triple jump.

“I won two gold and three sliver at the Senior Games and it was quite exciting because my triple jump was only one centimetre off the Canadian record,” she says. “I was really happy. What I liked even more is how everyone helps one another. One competitor showed me how to improve my shot put toss and I got an extra metre on my next attempt. It was really encouraging to see all the friendliness between competitors. I never saw that in tennis.”

Christa had briefly joined the West Vancouver Track and Field club, but she did not enjoy being one of only two adult members at the time. An Internet search led her to the Greyhounds Track and Field club, based in Surrey, and she joined them in May 2010. “Olga told me I should get a proper coach, so I was delighted to find Harold Morioka coaching the Greyhounds. I practised with them a few times before the B.C. Championships held in Langley that year. I entered six events and won six gold medals, including setting a Canadian record in the triple jump. One of the events I won was the javelin and I had only practised with it once before the competition. It hurt my wrist to throw it, though, so I won’t do it now unless I enter a pentathlon.”

A month after the B.C. Championships, Harold told Christa there was a meet coming up in Burnaby called the Trevor Graven Meet. She entered the 100 metres, high jump, long jump, triple jump and shot put - and won all five. One week later, she was off to compete in the Canadian championships in Toronto.

“In Toronto, I entered the same five events as I had the previous week only this time I was competing against people from all over Canada. I got my time in the 100 metres down to 17.4 seconds, a personal best, and broke my own record in the triple jump by reaching 7.3 metres.

This record still stands now. In the shot put, I made a misstep on my best throw, so it did not count, but I still won the gold medal with my second best throw.”

Next up was the World Masters in Puerto Rico where Christa stumbled and fell in the 100-metre event. In that competition, she won gold in the high jump, long jump, triple jump and 400 metres, as well as silver in the shot put and 200 metres to go along with her hard-earned bronze in the 100 metres.

“I won the most medals of any competitor there,” she says. “What was the most amazing thing for me was that after the long jump, they held this lovely podium ceremony with the Canadian flag on it. It was really cool to be part of that. I have a really nice photo of myself with the other two medal winners from Mexico and Trinidad. It was a wonderful experience.”

After competing in a couple more track meets, Christa finished 2010 having competed in 33 events, receiving medals in each one with a total of 28 gold, four silver and the lone bronze she won in the ill-fated 100-metre dash in Puerto Rico. If her health holds, she plans to continue competing in 2011, hopefully including the world championships in Sacramento. Christa does not consider herself special and offers advice to other seniors, “If you really challenge yourself, you can do it. It was a great move on my part to join the Greyhounds.

Everyone helps one another and you develop a real team feeling. The medals are just a bonus. When I went to my first event, it was just to participate and see how I could do.”

She did just fine.

JANUARY 2011 SENIOR LIVING MAGAZINE VANCOUVER & LOWER MAINLAND