She has represented her club, high school, province and now Glynis Sim is poised to represent Canada on the world stage.
Sim is one of 47 Canadian track and field athletes, under the age of 18, who will represent the maple leaf at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Youth Championships to be held July 15-19 in Cali, Colombia.
“I still don’t feel like it has really sunk in yet. I expect it will hit me soon because I’m leaving on July 9th,” says Sim.
She qualified for the IAAF World Youth Championships with the fastest time across the nation in the 2,000-metre steeplechase, finishing nearly 18 seconds ahead of her nearest rival with a time of 6:51:57 and setting a new personal best in the process.
Sim received the exciting news of being named to the Canadian team two days after the 2015 Langley Pacific Invitational Meet, which was held on June 19-21.
“I am so proud to be able to represent Canada at such a prestigious event. We [Canada] don’t really stand out in track and field, so it will be exciting to show other countries what we can do.”
She knows this will be the toughest competition she has ever faced. And she doesn’t plan to leave anything up to chance in her goal of reaching the finals in the steeplechase event.
The competition will start for Sim with heats on July 15 and with the top five from each heat moving on to the final.
Two days later, the gazelle-like runner expects herself to be competing in the final.
Sim says she will be running against the fastest runners in the world and is up to the challenge.
“Some of the top girls in the world are 40 seconds faster than me, but I just want to run faster than I ever have before. And if I do that, I will be happy,” she says.
For the six days leading up to the event, Sim will spend time sticking to a regimented training schedule, and adjusting to the high elevation of Cali.
“It will be interesting to see how the elevation will affect me.”
She is hopeful that her six- or seven-day-a-week training schedule that varies between running and circuit training will have her prepared enough so the elevation won’t be a factor.
After taking a break from steeplechase, Sim will be back at it, saying it is a lot more fun than just running because of the obstacles.
Her father, Richard Sim, says she does most of her training on her own, which he says takes a lot of determination and self motivation. Along with representing Canada for the first time, this will be the 17-year-old speedsters first time outside of North America.
She says she is eager to immerse herself in a new culture and to see a bit of the world.
“I have taken three years of Spanish in high school, but I still don’t think I’m that good. We’ll have to wait and see if it’s paid off once I’m there,” Sim says with a laugh.
Also representing the Okanagan region is Vernon’s Hannah Bennison, competing in the 3,000-m event, and Sean Bergman from Kelowna competing in the boy’s 2,000-m event.
“Even though I won’t have my family there, it will be nice to see some familiar faces,” says Sim.
She will be starting Grade 12 in the fall and has already been approached by the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University about running for them on a scholarship.
