So how does it feel to be the fastest young man in the Greater Victoria area?
Saeed Shokoya, who captured both the 100- and 200-metre events at the Lower Island high school track and field championships on Wednesday at Centennial Stadium, enjoyed it thoroughly, but hopes to be even that much quicker next week.
“I hoped to run sub-11 [seconds] when I came. That’s my goal. Today was more of an easy day, not going 100 per cent,” he said after claiming the 100 metres in 11.03 seconds.
The time would have toppled the old meet mark of 11.06 set by Stelly’s Blake Strukoff in 2003, but Wednesday’s event was deemed to be wind-aided.
“For the Island finals, I’m hoping I can run a really good time and after that it’s provincials and I hope I can win something for my school,” said Shokoya, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at St. Michaels University School.
The Saudi Arabia-born athlete hadn’t run 100 metres for a year so he wasn’t sure what to expect getting back on the track this season.
Shokoya began track and field at age 10 and continued until he was 14. He started running in Calgary, where his family moved when he was a toddler, and continued on in the Netherlands, where his father Wale Shokoya’s job as an engineer took him. Saaed’s mom Risi Shokoya is a nurse in Calgary as the teen boards at SMUS.
“I actually stumbled out of the blocks a bit in this race,” he said of his 100m time. “I have experience, I just haven’t been running in a while. When I moved to SMUS last year, I heard about the track team and I was excited about doing it again.”
Shokoya later added the 200-metre title and hopes for double gold again at Islands next Wednesday and Thursday, also at UVic.
Shokoya finished ahead of Claremont’s Yushi Ezumi, who came in at 11.54 seconds and Scott Jones of Oak Bay, third in 11.66.
“He was pretty fast,” said Jones, who also has not ran track in a while, focusing on other sports. “I thought I would give back a little to the school by running track again.
“I did it in Grade 9 and then lost a bit of love for it. Finishing third today is a total surprise,” said Jones.
“He [Shokoya] is an unbelievable athlete. He has great pace; staggering pace actually. I knew he would be somewhere around 11-flat [seconds] so I knew this would be a challenge,” added the Grade 12 student.
Oak Bay did team up to win the 4x100-metre senior boys relay as Calvin Litton joined Larry Lu, Liam Farrar and Liam Kennell for that victory.
In the senior girls 100m, Jamie Christie of St. Andrew’s won in 13.09 seconds, ahead of Spectrum’s Leah McStravick (13.11) and Kathy Forbes of Belmont (13.19).
The outstanding senior boy’s track athlete of the meet was Thomas Getty of Mount Douglas, who won the 800m (1:58.46) and 1,500m (3:58.70) and finished second in the 3,000m (8:50.44), while Oak Bay’s Madelyn Brunt claimed the girls’ award with her 5:19.36 clocking in the 1,500m steeplechase.
Parkland’s Courtenay Neville-Rutherford claimed the outstanding girls’ field athlete after winning the hammer throw and Marcin Deon claimed the boys’ award with a victory in triple jump.
Oak Bay won the overall team crown ahead of St. Andrew’s and Mount Douglas.
