News
Canadian Indoor Track and Field Championships Recap — Issue 25
While track and field is most often associated with the Summer Olympics rather than the recently concluded Winter Olympics, you would not think that given how much training our Highlander track squad has been doing over the past several months. With very few exceptions, Chloe ‘27, Chisom ‘27, Emmanuel ‘26, Samuel ‘28, Charlie ‘28, Spencer ‘30, and Chibuikem ‘27 have been practising five days a week on our wonderful Tanna Track, kept mostly clear thanks to coach and snow-blower boss Mr. Donnie Armstrong. No matter the snow, ice, or wind, these hardy Highlanders have been training outside and racing indoors in preparation for the outdoor season that runs from April through August.
This past weekend Chloe ‘27, Chisom ‘27, and Emmanuel ‘26 travelled to the Toronto Track and Field Centre at York University to compete in the Canadian Indoor Track and Field Championships. It was two days of intense racing featuring both rising athletes and established Paralympians and Olympians. Chloe became our first KES student ever to attend this championship last year, and this year she brought friends with her—hopefully even more will join in the future. All athletes must meet strict qualification standards to attend, and these three did so comfortably.
All three Highlanders competed in the 60m dash, while Chloe and Emmanuel also qualified in the 200m dash. Chloe ‘27 finished atop the podium in the 60m, with two Paralympians taking the silver and bronze positions, and she earned a second gold medal with her 200m performance.
Chisom ‘27 had a fantastic preliminary round, finishing just 0.02 seconds off her personal best and qualifying for the semi-finals. In the second round she delivered another excellent race, improving from 8.14 to 8.04 seconds. She entered the national championships ranked 25th and finished 15th overall—an outstanding result.
Emmanuel ‘26 has a lot of height to unwind out of the starting blocks. The shorter the race, the less it tends to favour taller runners, and at 60m this is the shortest race contested. With so many fast athletes assembled, reaching the top-16 semi-final round was never going to be easy. Emmanuel made it even more dramatic by racing to a three-way tie for 16th place. After several minutes that felt like hours, the official times for the three athletes were announced: 7.199, 7.195, and 7.193. Emmanuel advanced to the semi-finals by just 0.002 seconds—phew.
However, the excitement was not over yet. To reach the final, athletes must place in the top eight, and Emmanuel would need a significant personal best. He delivered exactly that, running 7.13 seconds (his previous best was 7.20, set just a few hours earlier). That performance moved him from 16th place into a tie for 8th—again. Once more, Emmanuel advanced by mere thousandths of a second. By the final round he was understandably fatigued and added a few hundredths of a second, finishing an excellent 8th overall.
Emmanuel ran his 200m on day two. In this event only five athletes qualify for the final. The race takes place on a 200m indoor track—half the distance of our beloved Tanna Track—and the tight turns and narrow lanes do not favour taller runners (though Emmanuel might disagree). Nevertheless, he ran an excellent race and finished his first indoor national championships just off the podium in 4th place, only 0.15 seconds away from a medal.
Philip Hadley
Senior School Faculty
Coaching XC, T and F, KES Swimming
King’s-Edgehill School is located in Mi'kma'ki, the unceded ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq People.
