Local athletes outrun odds at Quinte track meet

Kate Woods shows off her medal after running the ambulatory race in the Bay of Quinte track and field event on Wednesday, May 11, 2011. Kate has an acquired brain injury from a car accident, affecting the use of the right side of her body. Photo by Jennifer Bowman

By Jennifer Bowman

Kate Woods ran 100 metres in 23.24 seconds at the Bay of Quinte track and field meet on Wednesday.
For many people, that’s not a big deal, but Kate was never supposed to be able to walk again.
“[The doctor said] I would never walk again or never talk again or never get past 22,” said Woods.
A car accident at the age of four left Woods, a grade 11 student at Quinte Christian High School, with an acquired brain injury and set her development back to the level of an infant’s. She had to learn everything over again, but the doctors were convinced she wouldn’t be fully functional.
Her mission has been to prove them wrong.
On Wednesday, Woods competed in the Bay of Quinte 100-metre ambulatory race.
She spent a lot of time training and a day just getting to know the track. The biggest concern for her was falling. The right side of Kate’s body doesn’t function normally and sometimes gets tremors, making balance difficult. But she didn’t let that keep her down.
“I feel good when I run,” she said. “If I get it, great, if I don’t, no harm, no foul.”
Her biggest disappointment of the day was that she had no one to compete against. She’s hoping for some competition next week when she’ll be running at the Central Ontario Secondary School Athletics track and field event.
The weather was perfect for the track and field meet at Mary-Anne Sills Park on Wednesday. Sun and a slight breeze put everyone in good spirits and helped everything run smoothly.
Athletes from 15 different schools in the Quinte region attended the meet. For some athletes, like Woods, coming to meet was a milestone. For others, hopes of attending COSSA (Central Ontario Secondary School Athletics), then OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) lie in the future. Only the eight top finishers in each event move on to COSSA, competing there for a chance to go to OFSAA.

Arielle Fitzgerald attempts to break the long jump record at the Bay of Quinte track and field event on Wednesday, May 11, 2011. Photo by Jennifer Bowman

One young woman’s dreams go even beyond OFSAA. Arielle Fitzgerald, a grade 11 student at Bayside Secondary School, has been breaking records since grade nine. Last year she broke three records at the Bay of Quinte Championship. This year, she is hoping to go to the world’s.
“The world standard this year is 5’85” [in long jump], so it all depends on how my year goes for that, if I make it this year,” said Fitzgerald. “But maybe my first year university, maybe I can try to qualify for it again when I’m a bit older.”
Fitzgerald broke the triple jump record again this year, but didn’t break the long jump record as she had hoped. The long jump record has been standing since 1988. Still, Fitzgerald finished first in the long jump, triple jump, 400-metre hurdles, and 4×100 metre relay. There was only one event that didn’t hit the same standard, the 4×400 metre relay.
Fitzgerald says the battle is more mental than physical when she’s competing.
“During that 400-metre hurdle I didn’t think I could make it, but you just got to keep telling yourself it’s almost done,” she said.
She won OFSAA in both long jump and triple jump last year, and is setting her standards high this year.
“It gives me something to focus on next year, trying to break my own records,” said Fitzgerald. “This is what I was doing last year, I should be above that this year.”
Reuben Meens is focused on a lot this year as well. The grade 11 student from East Northumberland Secondary School, participated in five events, and also has a reputation to live up to after breaking the 100 metre hurdle record last year.
It’s his first year in senior competition, so he’s had to step it up a notch. Being the youngest competitor in the level has been difficult, and there are many times he feels he won’t be able to do it.
“Focus and push through it,” he said. ‘Think about how I can do it and not about how I can’t do it,”
Meens placed first in the 110 metre hurdles, second in the 400 metre hurdles and the 4×100 relay, and third in the 200 metre dash and the 4×400 relay. He is hoping to go on to OFSAA where he placed tenth in the 100 metre hurdles last year.
Rachel Faulds also hopes to go back to OFSAA, and it looks promising.
The grade 10 student from Trenton High School broke the record in both events she ran, coming in first in the 3000 metre run and second in the 1500 metre run.
The track she ran on for the championship was named after her grandfather, Michelle Foley, two years ago. She says that doesn’t add pressure to her performance though.
“The only ones who put expectations on me are myself,” she said.
She holds herself to doing her best, and hopes she will place in the top ten at OFSAA like she did last year.
Faulds enjoys running in the footsteps of her father and grandfather. Next year she is thinking about running the same event her father ran, the steeplechase.