The 22-year-old middle distance runner from Nelson is coming off a second-place finish in the men’s 800 metres at the NCAA championships on his home track at the University of Oregon.
Matti Erickson came in as the NCAA indoor men’s 800 metre champion and admits there were internal and external targets on his chest.
“There was a bit of pressure on me before the race,” said Matti.
“Some expectations from outward sources and internal pressure as well because I wanted to continue the success I had from indoors,” he explained, but mental preparations going into the final were basic.
“It was executing on the day, making sure that I optimized my performance to the best of my abilities and I made a couple of mistakes here and there, but ultimately I was able to pull off second place so I was really happy with that,” said the university graduate.
Matti says a busy summertime of racing against professionals and other university grads will include the Canadian Championships and with it a chance to qualify for the World championships in Japan.
“And qualifying for that means being top four at the Canadian National Championships and then also running the time qualifying standard for the World Championships, which right now is about a second less than what I’ve run this season,” he explained.
Matti feels his college track career has been a huge success.
“I haven’t accomplished everything I’ve wanted to, but I’m just so grateful that I’ve been able to make the jumps in training and in racing that I have, have all this life experience, yeah, really, really grateful for the experiences that I’ve had at the University of Oregon,” said Matti, who also reflected back to his high school days.
“Training at Lakeside Park, having no access to a track, just a soccer field, vs now training at one of the premier track facilities in the world,” he mused.
Matti said none of this would have been possible without the dedication and support of his parents, his track coach and the entire Nelson community.
“I look back and think, like wow, what did I do to deserve this opportunity?”
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