Quinn Cameron (wearing No. 2) races through the gruelling
1,500-m race to finish the decathlon at the Legion National Youth Track and
Field Championships held last month in Nova Scotia. Cameron won the event by a
single point. photo Royal Canadian Legion Dominion Command
by Andy Prest, North Shore News
In a gruelling test of 10 track and field events against some of the
best youth athletes in Canada, North Vancouver’s Quinn Cameron came out
No. 1.
The Sutherland Secondary Grade 11 student can call himself a
national champion after claiming gold in decathlon at the 43rd Legion
National Youth Track and Field Championships, hosted by Cape Breton
University last month in Sydney, N.S.
Cameron not only took the title but also set a new meet record in
U18 men's decathlon with a score of 6,195, beating the old record of
6,035.
“As the final results came in, I kept thinking that I’d heard it
wrong or they’d be revised and the placements would change,” Cameron
wrote in a note to the North Shore News. “I won by an unbelievably slim
margin and I’m thankful that my competitors pushed me to perform as I
did and demonstrated such great sportsmanship when the results came in.”
The first day of the two-day decathlon featured the 100-metre dash,
long jump, shot put, high jump and 400 m. Cameron set a new personal
best for Day 1 events, pushed on by his best ever long jump, which
topped his old mark by 30 centimetres. Those results put Cameron into
third place heading into Day 2, which rounded out the competition with
110-m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and the 1,500-m run. Huge
personal best scores in pole vault and javelin powered Cameron into
second place heading into the final, soul crushing 1,500.
“The hardest part of a decathlon is maintaining a mental focus from
beginning to end,” he said. “I probably spend just as much time
preparing myself mentally as I do physically.”
The final race was an epic one, with Alberta’s Winston Clarke
winning by more than eight seconds. Cameron finished in third place, but
every micro-second counted and he ended up topping Clarke’s total score
by one point, 6,195 to 6,194. In all, four athletes topped the meet
record, with Cameron coming out on top.
“I never would’ve been able to achieve this result without the
dedicated support of my family, my club, B.C. Athletics, and the track
community,” said Cameron. “I’d like to recognize my coaches from the
NorWesters Track Club by name: Elena Voloshin, Chris Weiss, and Dawn
Copping.”
Cameron described what it was like to travel to Cape Breton to compete for Team B.C.
“As our team flew in we were greeted with beautiful views from the
plane and live Nova Scotian music in the airport. It’s a great
experience to compete as part of the team. We roomed together in the
dorms of Cape Breton University and got to know each other well over the
course of the competition. My teammates were also very supportive of
each other as we all competed in our events, often watching and cheering
whenever an athlete raced.”
This was the second multi-event national championship win for
Cameron, as he also won the Canadian midget pentathlon championships two
years ago.
“Quinn is a very talented, very focused athlete who has trained with
NorWesters since he was a very young athlete,” said coach Dawn Copping.
“He has all the qualities to be a very successful national level
athlete in the future.”