There was no celebration for the Fraser Valley girls 4 X 100 metres team once they crossed the finish line during the finals on Saturday at Rotary Stadium.
All they could do is wait.
The Fraser Valley foursome were engaged in a tight finish with Fraser River, and the result was in doubt as Chisom Obioha of Fraser Valley and Fraser River’s Jasneet Nijjar battled it out in the final metres.
Time passed and a few moments later cheers erupted from the girls in baby blue.
The foursome of Obioha and Langley’s Natalia Monro, Jordan Jacobs and Shelbana Wiley earned top spot, edging out the Fraser River team by .04 of a second.
Fraser Valley officially posted a time of 50.22 seconds, while Fraser River clocked in at 50.26.
Obioha, the anchor of the team, said she could feel the presence of Nijjar nearby, but managed to push through.
“We had a bit of a lead when I got the baton but I was a little scared,” she said. “I gave a bit of a side eye and I knew she was there.”
She said she managed to pull out the win despite a poor start.
“It was kind of iffy because I had a bad start but I pulled it together at the end,” she said.
The foursome gathered near the timing board to see the final results and were elated to see the win.
“I was so happy I was screaming,” she said, upon realizing she had won the gold. “I wasn’t so sure at first but it felt really good to win.”
The Maple Ridge native has trained with the Langley trio for the past several weeks in anticipation of the event.
Nijjar and teammates Jessie Markin, Katelyn Malmquist and Hailey Dubois picked up silver, and bronze went to the Vancouver Island-Central Coast team of Carley Buckley, Danae Gendall, Madelynn Pollock and Angelina Shandro.
