Brian Thompson
Track & Field (2003)

Brian Thompson was a most dominant runner in Saskatchewan over a four-year period, 1983 to 1987, winning Canada West and Canadian University medals at 600 metres and 1000 metres and sharing in Saskatchewan relay success stories.

His most amazing clocking at 600 metres was one minute, 17:06 seconds, achieved at the Pan-Am Games between Canadian and American colleges at Sherbrooke in February 1985. His time was the fastest clocking for 600 metres in the world that year and, at the time, was the fifth best on the world's all-time list.  

Brian was born in Lanigan and took a liking to a variety of sports as he was growing up in rural Saskatchewan. He went to high school in Tisdale, where he was introduced to track, and he won the 400 metres and shared the zone's relay victory in the 4x400 at the provincial high school championships.

Brian made an immediate impression upon joining the Saskatchewan Huskies. He was an eight-time medallist and three-time all-star at the Canada West championships. At 600 metres, he was third in the 1983 finals and then second in both 1984 and 1985. After sitting out a season because of injuries, he won the 600 metre final in 1987.

Brian also ran in the Canadian Interuniversity championships on four occasions and was always a contender. He was third in the 600 metres in 1983, third again in 1984, second in the 600 metres and third in the 1,000 metres in 1985. He won the Canadian championship in the 600 metres in 1987, posting a time of one minute, 18.28 seconds, third fastest time ever at the CIAU finals.

With his speed, Brian was a natural fit in almost any combination of Huskie relay teams. At Canada West, he shared in gold the 4x200 relay during the 1983-84 meet. A year later, he had different partners in two relays, sharing gold in the 4x400 relay and then coming back to share in the championship final of the 4x800.

In 1986-87, Brian was part of the Huskie team, which finished second in the Canada West 4x800, but their time eclipsed the previous Canada West record.

At the Canadian university finals, he was on a silver medal winning team in 1985 and was on fourth-place finishers team on three occasions.

His university career ended on a brilliant note in 1987 when Lyle Sanderson and his Huskie athletes were crowned the Canadian champions. After some rebuilding a year earlier, they were primed for the challenge. They blew away the opposition at Canada West and won the nationals on home track with a 51-point performance.

Away from university meets, Brian performed well at the Canadian championships in 1986, finishing second in the 800 metres and that set the stage for his appearance at the British Commonwealth Games at Edinburgh, Scotland. He survived the first qualifying round in the 800 metres at Scotland and then found himself beaten in an overwhelming semifinal where his opponents included world-class winners like Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram.