Friday, June 26, 2015

Do you have your tickets for the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am Games? 2 weeks to Go!

With just two weeks to go to the Pan Am Games, do you have your tickets? Mayor John Tory said this week:
“People procrastinate on this because they’re not sure of exactly what they want to go and see or when they can go and see it. In my case it is more of a scheduling issue.” 
I can completely understand his comment.

The Pan Am Games are part of my passion so I have made the time to do the research. I have spent hours looking over the schedule, who is competing, when they're competing and which individuals have made the TORONTO 2015 team and comparing it to my calendar. I still don't have all the tickets that I will end up with but am very excited that the tickets I did buy have come in the mail during the past couple of weeks.



I can appreciate people who would love to go, but just don't have the time to research. The task can be daunting. For that reason, I will post my picks of tickets to get during the next few weeks. I will make my picks as specific as possible - meaning, I won't just name the sport but I will say the date and time of the session to make ticket buying easier.

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Don't have time to read this post? Scroll down to the end to see today's picks.

I wrote two blog posts last fall about how I decided which tickets to initially get. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

I currently have tickets to 7 events. During the initial lottery process, I chose the Opening Ceremony, the Closing Ceremony, the trampoline medal session and the men's triathlon.

Once detailed schedules were released, I added two athletics sessions and men's basketball.

I chose the men's and women's 100m races session (semis and finals) on Wednesday evening (includes men's long jump, decathlon, women's shot put, women's 400m hurdles, women's 800m and men's hammer) as well as the men's and women's 4x100m and 4x400m session on Saturday evening July 25th. This also includes the final events of the heptathlon, women's 1500m, men's high jump, women's javelin and men's 5000m.

I am more than excited at the list of athletics athletes I'm going to see including Damian Warner, Jessica Zelinka, Derek Drouin, Cam Levins, Melissa Bishop, Jessica Smith, Sarah Wells, Elizabeth Gleadle, as well as our many sprinters.

I look forward to seeing who will represent Canada this summer on our men's basketball team as the announcement hasn't been made yet.

The events I chose seem to be popular choices. The Opening Ceremony, trampoline, triathlon, basketball and the relay athletics session are currently sold out.

Today's picks involve athletics because I believe these will sell quicker than some other recommendations that will follow in the next few weeks.

Eight Canadian athletes have broken Canadian athletics records in 2015:

  • Shawn Barber - pole vault
  • Andre De Grasse - 200m (competing in 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay)
  • Cam Levins - 10000m (competing in the 5000m at the Pan Am Games)
  • Elizabeth Gleadle - javelin
  • Christabel Nettey - long jump
  • Natasha Wodak - 10000m
  • Brianne Theisen-Eaton (heptathlon - although competing in long jump and 4x400m relay at the Pan Am Games not the heptathlon)

The two sessions I recommend in particular involve the 100m and decathlon events (if you can get your hands on tickets for the sold out relay session on Saturday night, I highly recommend that too).

Andre De Grasse is in the media a lot recently after winning the NCAA titles in the 100m and the 200m races with (wind-aided) times of 9.75 and 19.58 respectively. He is the first Canadian to run under 10 seconds since Bruny Surin in 1999. Gavin Smellie will also be running the 100m. He was part of the London 2012 Olympic relay team and won the bronze in the relay at the 2013 World Championships.

Damian Warner is the World bronze medallist in the decathlon. It is very likely that he will be on the podium at the TORONTO 2015 Games if not on top of the podium.

There aren't many tickets left for this session (in the corner of the 3rd leg of the 100m relay - but still worth it).

Wednesday July 22 6pm (AT006) featuring 8 Canadian Olympians. 
Click here for tickets.
(Please double check ticket link to ensure you are directed to the correct session)
Men Long Jump Final (Jharyl Bowry, Stevens Dorcelus)
Men High Jump Decathlon (Olympian Damian Warner, Patrick Arbour)
Women 100m Semi-Finals (Khamica Bingham, Olympian Crystal Emmanuel)
Women Shot Put Final (Taryn Suttie, Olympian Julie Labonté)
Men 100m Semi-Finals (Andre De Grasse, Olympian Gavin Smellie)
Women 400m Hurdles Final (Sage Watson, Olympian Sarah Wells)
Women 800m Final (Olympian Melissa Bishop, Olympian Jessica Smith)
Men 400m Decathlon (Olympian Damian Warner, Patrick Arbour)
Men Hammer Final (Olympian Jim Steacy and Daniel Novia)
Women 100m Final  (Khamica Bingham, Olympian Crystal Emmanuel)
Men 100m Final  (Andre De Grasse, Olympian Gavin Smellie)

There are more tickets available for the following evening that includes the last two events of the decathlon and a chance to hear O Canada with Damian Warner at the top of the podium.

Thursday July 23 5:30pm (AT008). Click here for tickets.
(Please double check ticket link to ensure you are directed to the correct session)
Men Javelin Decathlon (Olympian Damian Warner, Patrick Arbour)
Men 400m Hurdles Final (Tait Nystuen, Gregory MacNeill)
Women 200m Semi-Finals (Kimberley Hyacinthe, Raquel Tjernagel)
Women Pole Vault Final (Kelsie Ahbe, Olympian Mélanie Blouin)
Men 200m Semi-Finals (Andre De Grasse, Brendon Rodney)
Men 800m Final (Brandon McBride, Anthony Romaniw)
Men Discus Final (Olympian Tim Nedow, Marc-Antoine Lafrenaye-Dugas)
Women 400m Final (Audrey Jean-Baptiste, Taylor Sharpe)
Men 400m Final  (Philip Osei, Daniel Harper)
Women 10000m Final (Natasha Wodak, Lanni Marchant)
Men 1500m Decathlon (Olympian Damian Warner, Patrick Arbour)

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