Windsor Legion runs in Ohio

by Mandy Matthews

Athletes from the Windsor Legion Track and Field Club have proven they can compete on an international level.

Half of the team traveled to Geneva, Ohio Feb. 9 to compete against American high schools to demonstrate their level of talent and skill to division one coaches. The Spire Scholastic Showcase gave the opportunity to 13 Legion athletes who contended in seven events. The Spire Institute is a privately owned sporting gym which houses a 300-metre indoor eight-lane Beynon 3000 surfaced track along with a 10-lane straight-away.

Ryan Sleiman, a Grade 12 student who won the 3,200-metre race in nine minutes, five seconds and 41 milliseconds, said he preferred this type of track. However, he said he felt lost at times because of the 100-metre difference the track has compared to Windsor’s 200-metre indoor track.

“In the middle, I started to feel it, but then I got a second wind around 900 metres to go and when 600 metres was left I thought to myself, ‘just be tough for 600 metres,’” said Sleiman.

Grade 12 student Brandon Allen finished one-onehundreth of a second behind Sleiman. While other Grade 12s shaved seconds off their personal bests and showed their talent in front of the coaches, a Grade 9 student who has been running for the Windsor Legion since Grade 7 exhibited his level of talent.

Graeme Fisher, an 800-metre runner was the youngest athlete in the field and finished 13th place with a time of two minutes and 54 milliseconds, almost beating last year’s Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations midget winning time of two minutes and 51 milliseconds.

“I’m looking forward to racing against my competition at OFSAA,” said Fisher. “I hope to win and drop a few seconds off my time.”