Some people were made for the NWT Track and Field Championships, such as Haley Cassie of Norman Wells.The 13-year-old distance specialist, who burst onto the scene two years ago, continued her assault on the NWT track and field record books by setting two new records, this time in the bantam girls 1,500 metre and 800 metre events on June 6. Her time of 5:20:00 in the 1,500 metre race obliterated the second-year bantam girls record of 5:41.42, which was formerly held by Darcie Setzer of Inuvik.
"I went in with a goal of running 5:25," said Cassie. "When I saw my time, I was shocked."
Cassie led the race from start to finish but she started the race a bit too fast for her liking and she said she slowed herself down to pace herself.
"I looked at my watch after my first lap and I ran 1:15," she said. "That was quick so I slowed down. I knew had a bit of time because I had the lead."
Cassie's time of 2:39.84 in the 800 metre event was good enough to break the record of 2:42.49, which had been held by Hay River's Michelle Daigneault since 2004.
Jerrica Sanderson of Fort Resolution also set a new record in the bantam girls shot put as she heaved 7.74 metres, bettering the old mark of Hay River's Hailey Bassett, who had thrown 7.29 metres in 2016.
As of press time, there had been no major hiccups or controversies and that was music to the ears of JJ Hirst, who heads the organizing committee with Tim Borchuk.
"You look around and you see lots of happy kids, lots of happy volunteers, lots of happy spectators and that's all we hope for," he said.
As was erroneously reported in NWT News/North in the June 4 edition, the discus cage was not built in time for this year's championships. The cage, which is being sponsored by Dominion
Diamond Corporation, will be built as soon as this year's meet is completed, said Hirst.
"It's been an upgrade that we needed for a while," he said. "We're happy that Dominion Diamond is helping us out with that."
The exact number of athletes at this year's meet was 1,121, which is within the average the meet has had over the past few years, but Hirst said it's still big enough that he's blown away by it all.
"It's hard to tell if there's any big difference between last year and this year when you have so many kids running, jumping and throwing," he said. "All Tim and I do is go around and check to make sure everything's OK but everyone who volunteers has so much pride in what they do and they take care of themselves. Our volunteers are awesome and they're the ones who make it happen."
The overall grand aggregate championship banner, which signifies the winners of the meet, was handed out on June 8 at the closing ceremony and you can read all about how it turned out in the next edition of NWT News/North.