Records are made to be broken. Such as the one that Yorkton athlete Jaden Porte broke recently while participating in a track meet in Winnipeg.
"My 2014 indoor track goal this year was to break the Youth Indoor 1,000m Saskatchewan Provincial Record", says Porte.
The previous record, which was held by Steven Klassen and set in 1989, was 2:35.67. Porte beat that with a time of 2:34.44 on February first.
Porte competed at the university meet in Winnipeg, which was hosted by the Manitoba Bisons. He competed against 18 athletes, most of which were from the Universities of Calgary, Alberta, Regina and Manitoba in a 5 lap race with each lap 200m in distance.
"The competition was the best I have ever ran against" said Porte. "Some of which are in the top 10 in the Can West University League.
"I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be before the race", said Porte. The first lap was slower than his normal at a 0:30.9 lap time but the pack
was bunched up tight at the start and no one could get out with the tight high banked curves at the U of M.
What Porte wasn't use to was the strong pace. A pace that did not slow down after the first lap with each Porte's lap times roughly the same for the next three laps. The athletes spread out on the final lap and Porte was happy with his finishing lap time.
Porte was very close on his first attempt to break the record in Saskatoon at the University Dual meet where he hit a time of 2:35.76. 9/100 seconds off record.
He was very unfortunate on his second attempt at the Sled Dogs meet two weeks later. " I had a false start and got DQ for that, so coming to the Bison meet I wanted to makeup for that as well", said Porte.
Porte's efforts have drawn the attention of University coaches. Doug Lamont, head coach of the Calgary Dinos track team, was one such coach impressed with Porte. "His (Porte's) present seed time for 1,000m is good enough already to make our track team", said Lamont. "Being only in grade 11 we will be following Porte, (whose time is) projected to be under 2:30 by the time he starts university and will be a good prospect".
Porte is a member of the Yorkton Legion Track club and would like to thank Kirk Flaman and Tom Cursons his training coaches as well as Coach Bob Edwards who has always given Porte tons of encouragement.
The next event that Porte will be competing in will be the Boeing Classic meet in Winnipeg on Feb 28 to March 1.
