THUNDER BAY -- Kross Forde wasn’t planning to compete in Tuesday’s 800-metre junior run. But it's a good thing he did.
Kross took advantage of the opportunity and easily cruised to victory, the fill-in taking top spot by a whopping 6.5 seconds, the largest margin of victory in any of the boys races Tuesday at the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board annual track and field competition.
“I wasn’t supposed to run the 800, somebody got hurt at our school,” said the sixth-grader from St. Bernard, who said it was “scary” to jump in for the injured student.
“I wasn’t ready. I didn’t even know I was going to the track and then my teacher came to get me.”
As it turned out, the scariest thing for all the other competitors was Kross’ speed.
The youngster's race of choice was always in a shorter-distance competition, but an injury convinced him to shift focus and he's since evolved into a long-distance star.
“I usually do the 200 and 400. Last year I came second in both.” Kross said. “For the school tryouts this year I was hurt. I pulled my pectoral muscle and couldn’t run.”
Despite all the adversity, Kross crushed the competition and will get a chance to rack up more points for his school tomorrow in the 1,500-metre run.
Elsewhere it was Sydney Sammons who beat out three E.Q. Jennings’ students to capture first in the midget high jump.
“I figured I would come close to first,” the Bishop Gallagher student said. “Most of the time people don’t practice and I usually practice.”
Whether practicing at school, or jumping onto a mattress at home, Sammons says she was happy to succeed at “one of the only things I’m good at.”
The eighth-grader’s final jump of 1.43 metres was a personal best.
The first of the two-day event saw 847 students from 21 different schools compete.
For the middle schools events, E.Q. had five first-place finishes including a sweep of the 800-metre races. In the junior division, four schools had two separate first-place finishes.
The event will continue tomorrow at Fort William Stadium.
