Three members of the Port Hardy Secondary School Track Club went down island to compete at the Comox Valley Track Meet on Wednesday, May 4 and came back home with some fantastic results.
Faith Castillo placed 3rd in the 200 metre and 4th in the 100 metre, and said afterwards that the track meet “was pretty intense, but also really fun,” adding that she really enjoyed “getting to compete, meeting a lot of new people and I have a lot of peoples’ SnapChats now.”
Joy Pascua, who placed 1st in the 1,500 and 2nd in the 800 metre, stated that the track meet was “super fun, everyone was nice,” and that her favourite thing about competing was “getting to leave school.”
Beth Martineau ended up winning 1st place in the 3,000 metre race, which is seven and a half laps around the track. Martineau said that she found the track meet to be “really good. It was a lot like the elementary school competitions I used to compete in,” adding that she’ll be going down island to Victoria to compete in three different events at the Islands Track Meet on May 18-19, which is “a much bigger tournament, so I’m a little nervous.”
PHSS’ Track Club Coach Mike Cleary travelled down island to help coach his students on to victory and he felt they “performed excellent. The exposure from getting used to that type of situation was a great experience for them,” adding that competing down island really helps “build their confidence as athletes, because they did quite well and it shows that they can compete and win against other schools on the island.”
Cleary has 5-6 students in the track club who regularly practice after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is “a good start to the program for its first year. It’s a shame we haven’t had a team in the past, and its really because the students showed the interest and dedication that we have one now.”