Local athlete Brandon Balbirnie was the first Grade 10 runner across the finish line at a provincial contest on Nov. 1.
Balbirnie, a Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School student, finished the 6.4-kilometre race at the BC High School Cross-Country Championships in Victoria in 22 minutes 50 seconds.
Running in the crowded senior boys division, he was 36th of 235 competitors.
The cross-country runner has been making serious gains every year – in Grade 8 he was 127th place; in Grade 9 he was 70th – and this is his best finish yet.
The average time in the Nov. 1 race, which saw runners from schools from all over British Columbia, was 25 minutes 24 seconds.
Balbirnie was the only Grade 10 runner in the top 50.
“It’s obviously thrilling,” he says of his placing. “It’s something I really like to do, and being good at it is always nice.”
There’s a good deal of strategy involved in cross-country running, Balbirnie explains. In Victoria, following a mass start, the runners sprinted across a field toward a narrowing at the head of the trail. Balbirnie stuck behind some front runners during the sprint, shielding himself from the wind, and when they reached the bottleneck, he made his first move, finding a lane just to the side of the runners on the main trail.
“That’s where I passed a lot of people. When I was done that, I would stick with groups of people, camp in between groups, and then I’d sprint ahead.”
It’s a fast pace, he adds.
“I’ve never actually pushed myself that hard before.”
The runner says he’s happy with his results, adding he’s always going to push himself harder.
“I’m hoping to win it in my Grade 12 year and come pretty darn close in Grade 11.”
Balbirnie qualified for the championships a few weeks before at the North Central Zone High-School Cross Country Championships in Vanderhoof on Oct. 18, where fellow PSO athletes Grade 9 student Reid Collinson and Grade 8 student Avery Collinson also competed.
