Celebrating 70 Years of Officiating!

One of Canada’s longest serving officials, Anne Lansdell (nee Winter), will be receiving her service pin from Athletics Canada—National Officials Committee (AC-NOC) for over 70 years of officiating service. Anne, a retired high school teacher from Chilliwack and Victoria, B.C., started officiating in 1948 as a young teenager, drawn to the sport through her father, Fletcher Winter, who was the long serving Chief Timekeeper for B.C. in both swimming and track and field.

Anne, along with another long-time Kamloops, B.C. official Alwilda Van Ryswyk (65 year service pin recipient), were the only two women technical officials in Track and Field at the 1954 British Empire Games held in Vancouver. Anne was a hand timer for the famous miracle mile race between Dr. Roger Bannister and John Landry.

Anne has continued being an active contributor to officiating in Victoria, B.C., Canada and the World ever since—doing just about everything there is to do in our sport of Athletics. Her two strongest areas of expertise were Combined Events and Photo Finish. Combined events requires a special kind of dedication to Athletics and athletes themselves and Anne has always excelled in this area. Anne was one of the first officials involved in electronic timing, having worked with the “film based” Omega timing system before the more popular Finish Lynx systems came into being.

Thank you Anne for your longtime service to our sport!