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Whitehorse high schooler nets three medals at national meet

F.H. Collins Secondary's Dominic Korn left Toronto with a variety pack of medals.
track

F.H. Collins Secondary’s Dominic Korn left Toronto with a variety pack of medals.

Korn, who was a member of Whitehorse’s Yukon Rush track team, ran and jumped to a gold, silver and bronze at the third annual Nike High School Grand Prix last weekend at the University of Toronto.

“I don’t really have a background in track and field,” said Korn. “My dad taught me a few things about running ... They just asked me to play so I played.

“I went last year too and it was a good experience. I never thought of doing any track whatsoever, but this competition got me into it.”

Korn, a Grade 12 student who turned 18 while on the trip, won bronze in the 100-metre sprint with a time of 11.44, just 0.03 behind the silver medalist.

“I just wanted to do better than last year in the 100-metre,” said Korn. “After my first heat I was at 11.36, which put me in the second best spot, so then I realized I had a pretty good chance at medalling. I was pretty happy I got a bronze in the final.”

Korn then leapt to a silver in long jump, jumping a personal best of 6.16 metres. He was just four centimetres behind the gold medal winner.

“I was just so happy I got a bronze in the 100-metre that I wasn’t expecting to do anything in long jump,” said Korn. “I was like, ‘I’ll just do this for fun and I think it’ll be neat to try this.’ And I ended up getting silver, which was quite a surprise.

“I just wanted to get over six metres.”

Korn’s gold came in a relay in which teams were randomly selected from the 290 athletes from every province, as well as Yukon and N.W.T.

The Yukon Rush team was comprised of 22 athletes from Whitehorse’s three high schools.

The team produced 13 top-20 results.

“It was an amazing event,” said Yukon Rush coach Christine Kirk. “We have hockey guys who have never done track, and soccer players and multi-sport athletes who go to this and most of them were really pumped afterwards and enjoyed the track meet. It’s super nice to see that they enjoyed the competition.”

The Yukon crew was edged out of a fourth medal in Toronto. F.H. Collins’ Levi Johnson placed fourth in the boys shot put with a throw of 13.38 metres.

Other top-20 results include Jayleen Kelly placing 14th in the girls 200-metre and 16th in the 400-metre.

Malcolm Muir jumped 5.17 metres to take 19th in the boys long jump and placed 20th in the 100-metre.

Avery Bramadat completed the 100-metre in 14.06 for 12th in the girls division.

Natalie Hynes came 12th in the girls 1,500-metre (5:27.38), Alexis Gee placed 19th (5:37.25) and Cambria Fuerstner 20th (5:38.11).

Kate Londero, the team’s only Vanier Catholic Secondary athlete, placed 19th in the girls 400-metre.

“We won heats and did well in all our events so it was an awesome thing to see,” said Kirk. “Even people trying things for the first time were doing pretty good at it.”

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com