New Westminster's Kate Stewart Barnett stepped off the bus and had just enough time to warm-up before taking a lane and eventually a gold medal at the B.C. High School Track and Field championships last week in Kelowna.
Running for St. Thomas More Collegiate, the Grade 10 athlete finished first in the junior girls 1500-metre steeplechase, adding to a haul that began a week earlier at the B.C. multi-event meet in South Surrey.
Stewart Barnett, who captured the heptathlon title at the South Surrey meet, finished the 1500m steeplechase race in 4:53.69, setting a new personal best. She would later finish second in the 400m event with a time of 57.81 seconds, just 0.38 seconds back of Kelowna's Emma Cannan. The Royal City Track and Field Club member also posted the fourth-best result in the high jump.
As part of the STM junior girls 4x400m relay, Stewart Barnett teamed up with Alicia Bremer, Sophia Wong and Milena Kalisch to place second overall.
Other Royal City track club members to medal were Jarret Chong of Riverside, who won the senior boys shotput and javelin, and placed second in discus, Ryan Goudron of Burnaby Central, who won the junior boys 1500m steeplechase, a gold with the 4x100m junior relay team, and silvers in the 400m and 800m races, Isabella Brunoro of Burnaby Mountain, who placed second in the junior girls 1500m steeplechase and 3000m, and Kairo Chiang of STM, with silver in Grade 8 boys 100m hurdles and bronze in triple jump.
