Race walking hits home with Peter Hocking

In the world of local sports, there are a handful of inevitablities that almost always seem to arise. For starters, one can rest assured that virtually each and every year, the same familiar volunteer faces will be present at the same events they have organized, many times for a decade or more.

In the case of the track and field scene, which is highly active at this time of year, that would mean running into the likes of John Roberts, Ken Alexander, Judy Roberts, Wayne Jermyn and Bill McKetsy more often than not on the newly-refurbished Laurentian University Track.

And inevitably, the time will come when turnover will be required, new faces welcomed to the scene as the crew that could easily be dubbed “Old Faithful” move along to other ventures and challenges.

Both of these scenarios came to mind recently with the temporary return to the area of Peter Hocking for both the city and NOSSA track and field championships. The retired teacher and internationally-accredited track and field official has moved to Coldwater, although often returns to his long-time stomping grounds.

It’s been a journey that Hocking likely seldom envisioned as an active young athlete. A native of England, who moved to Canada with his family at the age of two, Hocking is the first to admit that “elite” would definitely not have been the first word to spring to mind when describing his earliest forays in sports.

“I didn’t do much as an athlete,” the father of two said. “I was a pretty good road hockey player and I played lots of sports, but nothing really seriously.”

Originally settling in the Timmins area, Hocking moved to Sudbury to attend Laurentian University, with his first teaching placement at (now defunct) Garson-Falconbridge Secondary paving the way to several decades of work in the area.

With limited background in track and field, Hocking initially became involved on the periphery, assisting in any area he could, as teachers so often do.

“I started as a timer and became a coach a few years later, then attended a few clinics, learned about hurdling, sprints and distance running,” Hocking, who eventually migrated almost exclusively to the latter, explained.

Blessed with an impressive core of athletes for a number of years while heading up both the cross-country and distance runners of the track and field brigade at Lasalle Secondary, Hocking said that despite all of his success as a national and international official, coaching still provides the most enjoyment.

“I got more satisfaction out of coaching, because you spend more time with the kids, especially those who trained pretty much year-round,” he said. “My kids kind of grew up with a core of very good runners who were at Lasalle.

We did a lot of travelling together to meets — we had almost a club team in a high school setting.”

During the same time period, Hocking gradually developed his craft as an official, first immersing himself when Sudbury played host to the Ontario Summer Games in 1974. He was part of a group of dedicated volunteers who hit the scene at roughly the same time.

“We kind of moved up the ladder, gaining accreditation and moving up the ranks.” But it would be a fortuitous break in the late 1970s that really propelled his career as a track and field aficionado up another level.

“They were putting on several clinics in Sudbury for (track) officials,” Hocking said. “A guy was coming up to do a race walk judging clinic and there weren’t that many people signed up, so there were several of us locally that figured we had better go to make sure the instructor didn’t feel all alone.”

Fast forward some three decades later and Hocking is one of only three internationally-accredited Canadian officials in his field. “I was fortunate in running across a (race walk) official who kind of took me under his wing.

“In doing so, I accumulated credits, and the next thing you know, I was a Grade 3 provincial level official,” Hocking said.

Opportunities to combine a love of travel and track and field would open for the soft-spoken volunteer, who was invited to work the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 1982, the Pan Am Games in Argentina in 2003, as well as countless other events throughout Ontario and beyond.

Through it all, Hocking has remained both humble and grounded in dealing with the only discipline in track and field where there is any subjectivity. “It’s been really interesting, considering many of the race walking judges I work with internationally are ex-race walking champions, and certainly seem a lot more qualified than me.”

Later this summer, Hocking will crest another mountain, serving as track referee at the World Junior Track and Field Championships in Moncton, N.B. Although his travels may well take him from coast to coast and beyond, there always remains hope for the occasional visit home.

“I still love the Sudbury City Championships and NOSSA,” he said.

And we hope that, inevitably, we will still see him there.

Randy Pascal is the voice of Eastlink Sports and the founder of SudburySports.com.