Winning a gold medal at any major sporting competition is hard enough, but what about when you’ve just met your teammates?
That’s the challenge four young men from Zone 4 (Fraser River) overcame in the boys 4x400 relay at the 2018 BC Summer Games.
Ryan Goudron from Burnaby, Nathan Chan and Owen Pinto from Surrey, and Praise Aniamaka from Cloverdale ran together for the first time on Friday at the Games. Prior to that they had trained with their individual clubs, but never together.
And as there is only one handoff in the 4 x 400, the lack of familiarity is that too difficult, according to Pinto.
Goudron told Black Press Media the team had bonded together quickly, and it helped that they all bunked together in dorms during the Games, allowing them to get to know each other.
“No one made it difficult to work as a team and we all came prepared,” added Aniamaka. “No one was going to let each other down, we had each other’s back.”
Chan had been a basketball player until very recently, only switching to track in the past year. But the gold medal around his neck is already proof that he made the right choice.