Out of respect for his family, and in an effort to give them some time and space necessary to process and grieve we have held off sharing this news, but sadly we must share the tragic news that Kirk Cadman passed away on March 2nd as a result of a car accident.
Kirk has been an athlete and member of Athletics Manitoba since 2015 when he joined the organization as a member of Winnipeg Optimist Athletic Club at the age of 13. His father Scott then began coaching with Winnipeg Optimist a year later.
During his time in Athletics Kirk tried almost every event – if you check the AC rankings he probably has one of the longest lists of personal bests! Over the years he jumped, sprinted, ran long distance and even tried race walk. Over time his strength became apparent in the hurdles, and he really started to excel.
He represented Manitoba at the 2018 Royal Canadian Legion Youth Championships in Brandon, MB and again in 2019 in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
In 2019 Kirk set the U18 provincial record in the 400m hurdles, in a time of 56.07 breaking the previous record by over 1 full second.
Kirk loved the track and field community and had many close friends in the sport. Some of his favourite moments came from his time with us.
A celebration of life is expected to take place in May – details will be shared with the community as they become available.
In addition, WOA has also agreed to take over hosting responsibilities for the June 16-17th competition on our calendar, and plan to host a memorial event which will be named in Kirk’s honour.
Friends of Kirk have also set up the following GoFundMe Page in support of the family.
Our hearts truly go out to his family, and to all of his friends; those of you who trained with him daily and knew him so well.