By Martin Cleary
Young sprinters knocked down old records on the first day of the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association track and field championships Wednesday at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility.
Ange-Mathis Kramo of Paul-Desmarais became the first boys’ novice athlete to capture the 200-metre title in under 23 seconds. His time of 22.93 allowed him to break the 45-year-old record, which was set by Jean-Paul Bedard of the former André Laurendeau school at 23.00 seconds in 1978. His time was supported by a legal wind of 1.0 metres/second.
Kramo won the 200 metres by 1.05 seconds over All Saints’ Quinn Vanneste, who helped his school to a 4×100-metre relay victory in 49.08.
West Carleton’s Will Batley was the boys’ junior 200-metre champion in a record 22.14 seconds, which erased the former mark of 22.19 set by Manuel Compas of St. Patrick’s in 1991.
Batley was pushed to the finish by Ashbury’s Preston Schwarz, who placed second in 22.68.
Jay Yetman was a double champion in the boys’ senior division for Glebe. He won the 200 metres in 21.79 seconds and narrowly missed eclipsing the record of 21.60 seconds. Yetman also was first in the long jump at 6.22 metres, scoring a one-centiimetre decision over De La Salle’s Aziz Dagnogo at 6.21 metres.
But Dagnogo also left the track as a city champion, after winning the high jump at 1.80 metres.
Glebe’s Derek Strachan turned two long-distance runs into victories, winning the boys’ senior 3,000 metres in 9:14.07 and the open 2,000-metre steeplechase in 6:31.78.
Lara Collins paced Glebe to a tight 1-2-3 sweep in the girls’ senior 400-metre hurdles, winning with a best time of 1:10.13. Sophie Trott was runner-up in 1:10.56, while Lauren Alexander was third in 1:10.76.
Alexander completed her day by winning the 800 metres in 2:22.77.
Louis-Riel recorded three firsts in the boys’ junior division – Zachary Jeggo, 300-metre hurdles, 42.74 seconds; Daniel Cova, 800 metres, 2:05.81; and the 4×100-metre relay, 45.73 seconds.
The top boys’ novice athlete came from the field events as Shea Sampson of Lisgar won the discus at 39.90 metres and the javelin at 32.66 metres. He edged teammate Jerick Li, who was second at 32.26 metres.
Ashbury’s Emma Bao emerged as a double girls’ novice champion by winning the long jump at 4.57 metres and the triple jump at 9.29 metres.
The NCSSAA track and field championships are scheduled to conclude Thursday.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for 50 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
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