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Watson beaten only by 15-year-olds in 400
metre
SCOTT SCHMIDT
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Sage Watson has added to an already
outstanding summer.
While the Alberta Summer Games were taking
over Medicine Hat, Watson was taking over Sherbrooke, Que.
Competing in the Royal Canadian Legion National Track and Field
Championships, Aug. 6 to 12, the speedster picked up three
medals.
She helped two Alberta relay teams to the
podium with a silver in the medley relay and a bronze in the 4x100
metre relay, but really went to Quebec to see how she stacks up in
her best event — the 400 metre sprint. Watson found out by
taking the bronze with a time of 56.10 seconds, which not only
smoked her own personal best of 56.83, but was better than the
previous track record of 56.21.
“We were the fastest midget 400 for
females that Legion Nationals has ever had,” said Watson, who
was only .04 seconds from a silver medal and .24 from gold.
“It was a very close race, that’s the fastest race
that’s ever been there so that was pretty
exciting.”
The most amazing thing for this is the two
girls who edged her out were 15 years old, which is one year older
than she is. Since the Sherbrooke meet was the highest level her
age group can compete at, Watson can call herself the fastest
14-year-old in Canada for the 400 metre.
“That’s how my mother puts
it,” laughed Watson, who says she doesn’t think about
it too much. “I pushed myself really hard and I improved my
training and I knew the competition was very there so I also had
somebody in front of me pushing me the whole race.”
Watson also finished fourth in the high
jump with a personal best of 1.58 metres and sixth in the 200 metre
dash with a time of 26.05 seconds.
Watson has been shaving seconds off her
times all summer and began the season with five medals at the
Southern Alberta Summer Games. Then she blew away her competition
at the Legion provincials to become the youngest of 37 Albertans
competing at the national event.
The native of Seven Persons has a knack
for stepping up her game for pressure performances —
something that will be important if she is to realize her dream of
a future Olympics.
“That’s what I’m hoping,
well not hoping, but it’s my dream,” said Watson, who
says her preparation leads to her ability to perform when it
counts. “Because I prepare myself.
“I prepare myself at practices and I
also know what’s coming and prepare myself by telling myself
I have to run hard this race. I don’t set limits for
myself.”
Part of her national experience included
two days of educational seminars where athletes learned about
nutrition, sports psychology, technicalities of track, and
drug-free sport.
“The part I learned most is they
talked about how they test you for drugs,” said Watson, who
suffers from asthma. “I was concerned because I have an
inhaler and wondered if that affected anything, but it
doesn’t and I’m lucky for that.”
Outdoor track season has concluded for
Watson, but she will run cross-country during the fall as well as
play volleyball and maybe basketball. She will also continue her
development by entering her first season of indoor track and field,
where she will compete in some provincial events. |
