Yorkton has a new provincial record holder in track as Jaden Porte set the Youth Indoor 1,000 meter record for the province to start 2014.
"My 2014 indoor track goal this year was to break the Youth Indoor 1,000m Saskatchewan Provincial Record", says Porte.
The previous record was held by Steven Klassen set in 1989, which was 2:35.67. Porte beat that with a time of 2:34.44. set on Feb 1st.
He competed at the University Meet in Winnipeg which was hosted by the U of M Bisons. He competed against 18 athletes with five laps of 200m, most of which were athletes from U of C, U of A, U of R and U of M.
"The competition was the best I have ever ran against" says Porte. "Some of which are in the top 10 in the Can West University League. Despite the increase in competition Porte was not nervous. "Wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be before the race", says Porte. The first lap was slower than his normal at a 0:30.9 lap time but the pack was bunched up tight at the start and no one could get out with the tight high banked curves at the U of M. What Porte wasn't used to was the strong pace
That did not slow down after first lap with same lap times for the next three laps. The athletes spread out on the final lap and Porte was happy with his finishing lap time.
Porte was very close on his first attempt to break the record in Saskatoon at the University Dual meet where he hit a time of 2:35.76. 9/100 seconds off record. He was very unfortunate on his 2nd attempt at the Sled Dogs meet 2 weeks later. "I had a false start and got DQ for that, so coming to the Bison meet I wanted to make up for that as well", said Porte.
Setting provincial records at a young age, Porte is also drawing the attention of universities for his impressive potential early in his track career as the youngster is just in Grade 11 and has two years to improve upon his times. "Porte's present seed time for 1,000m is good enough already to make our track team", says Doug Lamont U of C Dino's head coach.
"Being only in grade 11 we will be following Porte, projected to be under 2:30 by the time he starts university will be a good prospect."
Porte is a member of the Yorkton Legion Track club and would like to thank Kirk Flaman and Tom Cursons his training coaches as well as Coach Bob Edwards who has always given Jaden lot's of encouragement. Porte loves training with the rest of his team mates and they will be attending the their next meet at the Boeing Classic in Winnipeg on Feb 28th - March 1st.
