Jaden Porte, a local track and field athlete from Yorkton, recently took part in the Canadian National Track and Field Championships that were held in Edmonton, Alberta, from July 4-5.
Porte, who entered the competition ranked 11th in the nation in his event (800m Junior), qualified for the Nationals early in the track and field season but knew that to reach his goal of qualifying for the 800m finals he would have to beat out at least three of the athletes that were ranked ahead of him; something he did after running a 1:55.31 time in his qualifying race to finish in one of the top two places, thereby guaranteeing himself a spot in the final despite competing against four athletes ranked higher than him in the National rankings. 鈥淭he way the semi-finals were ran they took the top two in each heat plus the next two fastest out of the 3 heats,鈥� offered Porte. 鈥淚 was ranked fourth in my heat out of eight and it was looking like I had a huge battle just to make the finals.
鈥淚 got out well and ran well with the second fastest junior in Canada breaking away from the field by eight meters just 500m into the race then I coasted out the last 100m to save my legs for the finals as I took a quick glance behind and knew I had second place and the automatic qualifier.鈥�
The second place finish in the qualifying semi-final race meant that Porte had accomplished his goal of making the finals, however his strong performance also gave him hope that he鈥檇 be able to better his overall rankings by not just three positions, but possibly by more by finishing higher than eighth (last place) in the final 800m race.
However the talented track star also knew that he was seen as an underdog being the lowest ranked athlete to qualify for the final. 鈥淚 was at a huge disadvantage being the slowest seed in the final from previous times in the year,鈥� mentioned Porte, continuing, 鈥淭hat being said I went out like I would any other race and was in shock at how fast these athletes ran the first 200m.
鈥淚 was in eighth place at this mark and was finding trouble moving up in the field as I slightly tripped up with another athlete. It wasn鈥檛 until there was 200m to go that I decided to leave everything I had on the track, passing four athletes who had seed times half a second to two seconds faster than me and by the end of the race I had finished fourth.鈥�
The fourth place finish 鈥� one spot shy of the podium 鈥� was a career best for Porte at the National level as he had previously finished 13th overall at last season鈥檚 Legion Nationals in the Youth category.
Also competing at the National competition was Saltcoats native Avery Westberg who finished in sixth place in the 3000m Senior Women鈥檚 Steeplechase with a time of 11:32.67.
