THUNDER BAY -- Sisters Kirsten and Sara Clouthier say the urge to beat each other fuels their training.
“We’re very competitive… It pushes us to do our best,” Kirsten Clouthier said.
On Wednesday, the results spoke for themselves.
Kirsten and Sara, twins who attend Ecole Gran Morgan Public Morgan, set a total of three records on Day 2 of the Lakehead Public School track meet.
“We practiced and put in hard work,” said Kirsten who broke the girls’ Grade 7 long jump and triple jump record.
“I did training camps so that helped a lot,” said Sara who broke the girls’ Grade 7 400-metre record.
Sara said breaking the record was extra special because of her admiration for the previous record holder, Amy Stieh, now in 12th Grade at Hammarskjold High School.
“I feel very happy and proud of myself because I’ve always wanted to break a record,” Kirsten said.
Overall, the twins contributed 59 points to their school's total of 554 -- the most out of the 22 schools competing.
The siblings weren’t the only athletes enjoying success on a hot Wednesday at the Legion Track and Field.
Jacob Turek, Grade 8 of Algonquin came 0.04 seconds short of breaking the boys’ 200-metre dash record, and contributed 28 individual points for his school on Wednesday.
He said a first-place finish was something he expected.
“I train three days a week. I feel good… I feel accomplished.”
Overall, approximately 1,390 athletes from over 20 schools participated in the meet.
“Track is a really exciting time. They wait all year, and for a lot of kids it’s likely one of the last events they will participate in before going to high school,” said Matt Steele, coordinator of Lakehead Elementary Athletics.
While high school meets continue to struggle with low engagement, numbers for elementary school meets have risen for the last three years.
“We’re trying to figure out why that is as an association. We have added the option for our athletes to participate in a third event (compared to two in previous years)… And we hope by increasing our numbers at the elementary level, our students will be more comfortable participating at the high school level," Steele said.
For the Clouthier twins will have one more year to break records, which they will look forward until the 2020 meet.
“I look forward to it every year,” said Sara. “I love running and we get two days off school so it’s tons of fun,”
