Phil Lefebure
May 9, 1931 – February 16, 2017
As a young man, Phil Lefebure played soccer in a men’s league, bowled in a 10-Pin bowling league for many years and was very involved in tennis – even becoming the president of the Coquitlam Tennis Club. After he retired from the Vancouver Weather Office, Phil and his wife, Pauline, took up lawn bowling.
In 1999, when he heard about the newly-formed Greyhounds track and field club for seniors, he decided to participate in track and field, too. Phil was mainly a sprinter and concentrated in the 100m, 200m and 400m, but occasionally competed in the 800m and 1500m. He mainly entered in the BC Seniors Games and occasionally in the BC Masters Championships and the Langley Pacific Invitational Meets.
Twice Phil was a double gold medalist at his hometown Langley Pacific Invitational Meet. In 2000, Phil won gold medals in the M65 200m and 800m, and in 2009 he won gold medals in the M75 100m and 200m. He became the BC champion when he won the gold medal in the M80 400m at the 2011 BC Masters Championships hosted by the Langley Mustangs. The following year, Phil competed in an indoor meet for the first, and only, time when he competed in the BC Masters Indoor Championships in Kamloops. There he won bronze in the M80 60m, silver in the 200m and gold in the 4x200m relay. This team, which included Greyhounds teammates Les Robson and Norm Lesage, set the BC M80
record (2:53.88), a relay record which still stands today (eight years later).
Most of Phil's competitions were at the BC Seniors Games. From 2000 to 2016, he competed in thirteen of the seventeen Games, winning 33 medals (8 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze). In 2001, he won a medal of each colour; gold (800m), silver (400m) and bronze (200m). His best year was at the 2002 Games in Prince George where he won gold medals in the M70 200m, 400m and 800m, and a silver medal in the 1500m. He had another good year at the 2007 Abbotsford Games, winning silver medals in the 100m and 400m, bronze in the 200m and a gold medal on the M75 4x100m relay team (again with Les and Norm), which set a new Canadian record (1:06.15). And the following year in Nanaimo, Phil duplicated his 2001 results by winning gold, silver and bronze. In the Comox Valley at the 2010 Games, Phil was awarded silver in the 100m, 200m and long jump, and bronze in the 400m. Phil's last competition was at the 2016 Coquitlam Games, where he won gold in the M85 50m (the first year that this event was staged) and silver in the 100m.
Phil's family wrote “...the man knew more random facts than anyone and could recall them with great clarity (sometimes too much clarity and his stories were well-known to take some time!).” Phil loved to run but he probably loved to talk even more. One time at a track meet he was telling one of his stories when the coach asked, “When is your next race?” As he looked towards the track, Phil answered “The 400m, and oh, that's my race that they're running right now.” And he kept on talking.
