Brody Clark’s OFSAA hardware haul continues.
Delivering personal-best performances when it mattered most, the Milton District High School long-distance specialist raced his way to silver in both the junior boys 1,500 and 3,000-metre this past weekend in London.
The 10th grader was especially surprised to shed a whopping nine seconds off his previous benchmark in the 1,500 – clocking in at 3:56.30 to break the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference record set 13 years ago by Milton Olympian Ben Preisner.
“I found a speed I didn’t know I had,” said Clark, who captured gold at last fall’s OFSAA cross country championships to kickstart a promising high school running career.
The 1,500m race, he noted, had a particularly deep field this year that pushed each other to a number of personal bests. Among those was the 3:55.17 effort by Kenneth Champ of Barrie that set a new OFSAA record.
Said Clark, “I can’t be too upset with that. There were so many great runners that I think everyone just got pumped for that type of atmosphere. I knew I could fit in with them somewhere, just not so high.”
While convinced he “left it all” on the track for the 3,000m, it was a bittersweet finish to the weekend – as he led for all but the final 100m before being eclipsed by Champ once again.
“I think it was a combination of not having as much championship experience as him and just running out of gas,” said Clark of his 8:37.08 showing, three seconds faster than his previous PB.
The silver medalist felt good about assuming the responsibility of taking the early lead in such a lengthy race and maintaining it till the final stretch, noting a number of competitors told him the move was ‘courageous.’
“I can hold my head up knowing there was nothing else I could possibly have done to win it. My time (for victory) will come.”
Among Milton’s three other OFSAA participants, Tia Porteous of Elsie MacGill Secondary School secured bronze in the novice girls 100m with a 12,33-second finish.
Bishop Reding’s Naomi Shillingford placed seventh in the senior girls 200m, while Ifekristi Akinloye of MD raced the junior boys 100 and 200m to ninth and 16th respectively.
BR’s Liam Miller had qualified for senior boys pole vault and 110m hurdles, but did not compete.