A Priddis area runner has been pushed into the record books.
Claudia Belanger, a Grade 10 student at Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School, shattered a seven-year provincial record in the Junior girls 3,000m at the Alberta high school track and field June 1 at Foote Field in Edmonton.
“One of the girls in the race, (Skye Russell) I had competed against during the winter season and I was lucky to have her in there and pushing me the whole race and help set the pace,” Belanger said.
Belanger crossed the finish line in a time of 10:18.56. The previous record was 10:23.35 by Fay Stenning of Western Canada High in 2005.
Belanger had set a goal of running a personal best 10:20 prior to the meet.
“My coach and I had discussed the thought of breaking the record,” Belanger said, who set a goal of running between 82 and 83 seconds for each of the 7.5 400m laps.
“They were announcing my split times after every lap but I didn’t always hear it because I was concentrating on the race,” Belanger said. “I was running with Skye until about 700 to 800m left when I decided to do my kick. I still had a lot of energy left.”
She was able to hear her split time on the bell lap.
“I was about three seconds off what I wanted to be,” Belanger said. “So I decided to pick it up.”
She ran the final 400m in 75 seconds which put her well under the record.
“I wasn’t sure if I had set the record or not,” Belanger said. “It was really exciting when they announced it.”
She finished almost 15 seconds ahead of the second-place Russell.
The excitement wasn’t quite done yet. She also won the gold medal in the Junior girls 1,500m in a time of 4:45.66 on June 2.
She was pushed by Madison Laurin of Western Canada High School who was on Belanger’s heels at 4:45.88.
“That was a very close race,” Belanger said. “I was with two other runners who pulled ahead of everybody else.
“I know I have to kick early so I started to pick it up with about 400m left. They started to pick it up with about 100m left and I couldn’t tell how far behind me they were.”
Belanger had to kick — to kick into a high gear near the end of the race — earlier than the other two runners because she felt she wasn’t as fast a sprinter as they were.
Laurin is going to see Spartans in her sleep. The day before finishing second to Belanger, she had to settle for the silver in the Junior girls 800m as well when she was beat by Gillian Ceyhan of Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School.
“The girl from Western (Laurin) just pushed me at the start,” Ceyhan said. “I ended up settling behind Natasha Smallwood because she set a good pace.”
Ceyhan, Smallwood and Laurin pulled away from the pack. With about 200m remaining, Ceyhan decided to leave the other two.
“In the 800m, I find my kick is best at around 200 left to go,” Ceyhan said.
Her gold-medal time was 2:20.53. Laurin was second at 2:21:09 and Smallwood took the bronze at 2:22.11.
Belanger and Ceyhan were the only Spartans to go to the meet. However, their three first-place finishes combined with Ceyhan’s fourth in the 1,500m was good enough to put the Spartans in ninth place among the 45 2A schools.
They gave credit to STS track coach Rob Lederer and his efforts in running the Spartans track and field team.
Both Belanger and Ceyhan will be competing in the summer track season with their club, the CALTAF.
For the full results go to www.asaa.ca and click on host websites.
