Jasneet Nijjar looked like she was shot out of a cannon at the start of the women’s 300m race, and she only got faster cruising to an easy win.
The Surrey native blazed through the finish line in 39.36 seconds, a full second and a half ahead of runner up Angelina Shandro of Victoria. It was one of three gold medals for Nijjar, who also won the 200m and 80m hurdles races. She was also a silver medalist on the Fraser River’s 4x100m team.
Nijjar said she was tired from the 300m preliminary race held earlier in the day, but you wouldn’t have known it. You wouldn’t have suspected she was feeling nervous either.
“I was actually trying to take it a bit easy at the start because I knew I was going to be running into head-wind at the end,” said Nijjar. “But I ended up being pretty relaxed all the way through.”
A couple of girls kept up with her, sort of, until she rounded the final corner. Nijjar really turned on the jets with the finish line in sight.
“When I run I don’t really focus on the people who are running with me,” she said. “I’m always running against the clock and I’m really happy with the time I achieved.”
Three podium finishes for Pederson
A strong start led to smooth sailing for the Fraser River boys team in the 4x100m final Saturday at Rotary Stadium.
White Rock’s Keaton Lees set the pace, and his teammates Jaden Severy from Coquitlam, Ryan Denman from White Rock and Ryan Pederson for Surrey added to the lead for the team.
They beat out second place Fraser Valley by 1.38 seconds. Fraser River blazed through the course in 46.49 seconds.
“I felt I had a really good start,” said Lees, who opened the race for Fraser River. “I felt really pumped coming out of the blocks and that we had a good chance to win it.
“I was kind of cheering and hoping that no one was going to pass us. And in the last 50m, I saw that Ryan had the lead by a good gap and I was just really pumped for us to win.”
Pederson also won a silver medal in the 300m sprint and added a bronze in the long jump.
Wilson ‘walks’ to a win
Tyler Wilson flung his arms in the air, a look of triumph on his face as he crossed the finish line.
The winner of the men’s 1,500m race-walk gutted out an eight-second win over Vancouver’s Tyler Jeong in hot and windy conditions that tested athletic endurance.
“It was tough and everything below my knees is burning, but that’s why I’ve been out training every day ever since I found out I was going to the BC Summer Games,” the Surrey native said. “I never thought I’d make it to this point, and I was going to do everything I could to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Wilson and Jeong were side-by-side heading into the final lap, with Daniel Solvien (Vancouver) fading to third and Yanick Contant (Port Alberni) well behind.
Wilson started to pull away heading into the final corner and didn’t look back.
“I knew he (Jeong) was fast because he’s been winning all of hismeets, so my plan was just to stick with him and see if I could pass him at the end,” Wilson explained. “I’m just overjoyed right now. It’s amazing.”
- Eric Welsh