With gazelle-like leaps and unfailing energy, Salmon Arm Secondary’s Glynis Sim sped to gold in the women’s senior 1,500-metre steeplechase Friday morning at the BC High School Track and Field Championships in Langley.
All that training over a beam held up by two sawhorses in her backyard clearly paid off, as did her training with a track club in Vernon.
“It was good, I felt pretty comfortable,” she told the Observer Monday – still feeling good, other than her calves being a little sore from wearing spikes. “Most of the race I led and around the last lap I kind of felt more comfortable – I could tell people around me were getting tired.”
She wasn’t, however, and completed the three-and three-quarter laps, which each includes four regular hurdles and a water jump, in 5:16.31.
“Glynis had an amazing provincials!” said coach Pam Chudiak. “She was very strategic in her races and it paid off. She won a gold medal in the 1,500 steeplechase, fourth in the 1500-m and bronze in the 3000-m (runs).”
Sim said she was pleased with the other races, but was “definitely focusing on the steeplechase.”
“It’s really fun, a little bit more interesting than just running.”
Although she used to do steeplechase, she says she took a break and is just getting back into it.
In Grade 11, Sim says she usually trains six or seven days per week, with one or two of them dedicated to hurdles.
Her fitness is clearly top notch, competing in the 1,500-metre run heat Thursday, the steeplechase Friday morning, the 1,500-m run finals Friday afternoon and then the 3,000-m run Saturday morning.
Sim hopes to be able to continue her track and field career when she attends university.
Also signed up for Provincials from SAS were: Amy Baker, Morgan Carson, Jacob Dies, Laurel Poloway, Austin Pugh, Shea Smith, Tyson Stewart and Clayton Thielman.