World junior cross-country champion Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia is a favourite in the 3000m at the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Youth Championships, July 15-19, in Cali, Colombia.
Gidey is 17 and just four years ago, was expelled from school for refusing to run in physical education classes.
“I really did not like racing,” she told the IAAF. “I brought my parents to school to talk to the headmaster with the hope of getting reinstated. He agreed to reinstate me only if I ran for the school. I reluctantly agreed, just for the chance to get back to school.”
Vernon’s Hannah Bennison, 15, will be running alongside the world champion in the 3,000. Bennison, coached by Nate Reider of Kelowna, left Thursday for Toronto.
Team Canada – consisting of 26 females and 21 males – will gather in Toronto and then fly direct to Cali.
At 90 pounds and “almost five feet”, the Grade 10 Bennison recently won the 3,000 in a record 9:33.44 in the Subway B.C. High School Track and Field Championships at Langley’s McLeod Athletic Park.
The VSS student broke the 9:37.20 set in 1984 by Kelowna-Mt. Boucherie Bears’ runner Brenda Shackleton in 1984. Hannah’s mom, Anne, used to compete against Shackleton as a youngster.
Glynis Sim of Salmon Arm, coached by John Machuga of the Vernon AAA Club, will compete in the 2,000m steeplechase.
The World Youth Championships will feature more than 1,400 athletes from 156 countries, making it the biggest international athletics event to be held in South America.
The 3,000 heats go Thursday morning with the finals set for the afternoon of Sunday, July 19.
For Vashti Cunningham, sporting greatness is in the genes.
The 17-year-old Las Vegas high jumper is an overwhelming favourite for gold, having cleared 1.94m already this year, which puts her four centimetres clear of her closest competitor outdoors.
Cunningham’s dad, Randall, was an NFL star quarterback in the 1980s and 1990s. Her mother, Felicity, is a 5-foot-11 former professional ballerina with the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
The pencil thin Vashti is just shy of 6-foot-1.
