Shaquille Dill and Trey Simons, two of Bermuda’s top middle distance runners, both turned in improved times times when they competed in three track meets in the space of six days in western Canada as part of their preparation for upcoming events.

Dill, a member of Bermuda’s Commonwealth Games team, used the Canada meets as part of his preparation for the Glasgow Games while Simons is preparing for the NACAC Under-23 Championships.

Dill twice set his fastest times of the season in the 800 metres while Simons continued to bring his times down in the 1,500 metres.

The first competition in the three-meet series was the Edmonton International Track Classic at the University of Alberta track facility in Edmonton, featuring Open events on the first day on Saturday, July 5 from which athletes in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres events earned places in the invitational or elite races the next day.

Simons recorded a time of 3min 56.83secs in the men’s Open 1,500 event in Edmonton to claim third place, while Dill competed in the Open 800, one of the four events from which the top finishers would seal places in the invitational or elite races.

Dill finished second in a time of 1:52.54 to earn a place in the international elite race, where, in the invitational 800, he recorded a ninth place finish in a time of 1:54.18.

The second meet — the Victoria International Track Classic — occurred two days later on the evening of July 8 at Centennial Stadium at the University of Victoria, the venue of the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Both Simons and Dill rebounded strongly from their performances at the Edmonton International Meet to run faster by 3.74 and 6.35 seconds respectively.

At the Victoria meet, Simons competed in the National Development Section of the 1,500, earning a fifth-place finish among a field of 13 athletes with a time of 3:53.09, his second fastest time in the 1,500, which also enabled him to surpass the qualifying standard of 3:55.00 for the NACAC Under-23 Championships.

Dill finished third in one of the showcase events, the Gary Reed Invitational 800 event, with a season-best time of 1:48.44 in the nine-man field.

The pair completed their gruelling competition at the prestigious Harry Jerome International Meet two days later at the Swangard Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, on July 10.

Simons, though not feeling 100 per cent, pushed himself to an eighth place finish in one of the men’s mile events, the Olympic Development Mile, in a time of 4:14.91, which was equivalent to a 3:56.05 time in the 1,500 .

Dill rounded off his performances at the three-meet circuit with his best performance of the year to date as he surpassed his time at the Victoria International Meet.

Running in the Province of British Columbia Invitational 800 , Dill recorded a time of 1:48.09 to earn a fourth-place finish, which enabled him to finish ahead of Felix Kitur of Kenya who had finished second in 1:48.15 at the Edmonton meet behind winner Duane Solomon in 1:44.92.

The Bermuda pair returned home on the weekend and will continue their training ahead of the Commonwealth Games and the NACAC Under-23 Championships.