New Westminster athletes displayed mid-
season form in the inaugural indoor track meet of the year, picking up medals at the Harry
Jerome Indoor Games in Richmond.
Leading the way was the New West Spartans’ Diego Medrano, who finished first in the men’s 16-17 year 60-metre hurdles race. Medrano, who attends Burnaby South Secondary, finished the race in 8.82 seconds, nearly a full second ahead of his nearest challenger.
Collecting the silver in women’s 16-to-17 year old shotput was Jenevieve Patry-Smith. The Royal City Track and Field Club athlete tossed the four-kilogram shotput 12.02m.
A fourth-year UBC student-athlete, Manisha Kandola placed third in the 18-to-60 women’s high jump. The New Westminster Secondary alumna cleared 1.60m, just behind fellow UBC athlete Olivia Campbell. Finishing fifth overall in the women’s 18-to-34 600m dash was the Royal City’s Emily Chilton. She crossed the finish line in 1:45.90, just 2.50 seconds out of a silver medal.
Posting the ninth-best time in the men’s 16-17 age group’s 600m dash was Yousef Mian, of the New West Spartans.
The Burnaby Striders launched the indoor track and field season with some wind in their sails. The program saw newcomer Nick Hsu set the tone, winning a pair of gold medals at the indoor competition.
Hsu won the 13-year-old boys 60-metre race in a time of 8.20 seconds, and followed that by topping the 600m dash in 1:48.37, finishing six seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
Also earning the top spot on the podium was the Striders’ Jaeland Cummings, who collected gold in the 13-year-old girls’ 60m dash with a finish time of 8.61 seconds.
Fifteen-year-old Rachael Chiang picked up a pair of silver medals in the girls midget division, finishing second in the 300- and 600m races. Chiang finished the first race in 47.34 seconds, just 0.78 seconds behind Vancouver’s Logan Fung. In the 600m event, Chiang crossed the line in 1:53.23, just two seconds shy of Kajaks’ Claire Bosma.
Katelyn Malmquist was handed an honorary gold in the midget girls 300m, due to time-keeping issues.
In her first indoor track meet, Burnaby’s Annika Steele scored silver in the 13-year-old girls 600m, in a time of 1:57.66.
Simon Fraser University freshman Diana Voloshin, meanwhile, shared first place in the women’s 18-to-60 division’s 60m hurdles, completing the event in 9.13 seconds. She also finished second in the 60m dash, with a time of 7.86 seconds – just 0.06 seconds back of Vancouver’s Jonelle Bell-Spence.
