The University of Guelph and the Speed River Track and Field Club will become the first-ever High Performance Centre of Excellence (HPCoE) for Athletics Canada.

Under a three-way agreement reached this week, the University and the prestigious track and field club based in Guelph will offer training, facilities and services to top-level athletes.

Dave Scott-Thomas, head coach of both the Speed River club and U of G’s cross-country and track and field teams, said the agreement will help athletes “further their goals of representing Canada on an international level all the way to the Olympic Games.

“With seven Olympians in Rio in 2016, Guelph has proven to be a hotbed for high-level development, and we look forward to continuing that tradition through 2020 in Tokyo and beyond.”

To receive the HPCoE status, facilities must have multiple resident coaches across a range of athletics disciplines; training facilities for all supported events; access to sports science and sports medicine services; a focus on high performance outcomes; and a history of benchmark event success.

Rich Moccia, chair of the Speed River club’s board of directors, says the new designation “sets a high bar for world-class performance and helps to build on our already significant accomplishments in developing premier-calibre athletes.”

Simon Nathan, Athletics Canada’s high performance director, added that Guelph has “a rich history of producing elite-level athletes who have had success on the world stage, and we fully anticipate that trend to continue with the coaching team that’s in place combined with the resources made available to athletes at every level of the sport.”