It first became evident on the soccer pitch. Taylor Lyman said he wasn鈥檛 very good at the team sport, 鈥渂ut man, I was really fast out there.鈥�
Lyman has parlayed that speed well and will be one of the names to watch at the 2015 sa国际传媒 high school track and field championships today through Saturday in Langley.
The Grade 11 Reynolds 800-metre sensation was named top male athlete of the 2015 Island high school track and field championships last month at Centennial Stadium by winning gold in one minute, 51.73 seconds. It is the 10th-fastest junior time in the world this year and broke the 20-year-old Island high school meet record held by Olympian Zach Whitmarsh, who came out of Oak Bay to run in the 2000 Sydney Summer Games, win bronze in the 1999 Pan Am Games and also compete in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
That has Lyman considering a similar path, starting next month at the world junior track and field championships in Cali, Colombia.
鈥淚 want to get a good [U.S. collegiate] NCAA athletic scholarship from it [running]. After that, the Olympics are always in the back of your mind,鈥� said Lyman, who is coached in the Prairie Inn Harriers club by two-time Olympic marathoner and Pan Am Games-medallist Bruce Deacon.
But if you think the sa国际传媒 high school 800 metres will be a breeze for Lyman, guess again. Fellow-Islander Thomas Oxland from Dover Bay has already been to a world junior championship while Dean Ellenwood of Langley is top-20 in the world in junior. Both Oxland and Ellenwood have run in the 1:50.00 range.
While it bodes well in the future for sa国际传媒 in the 800 metres, it makes getting to the top of the podium in Saturday鈥檚 sa国际传媒 high school final a likely torrid race to the wire.
鈥淭he competition in this event is ridiculous,鈥� noted Lyman.
鈥淚t鈥檚 crazy to think of the level of competition in this [sa国际传媒 high school 800-metre] field, with three guys who have the potential to come in under the sa国际传媒 high school record.鈥�
Oak Bay, the green-and-white juggernaut that won its 24th consecutive Island championship, is after its 11th sa国际传媒 team title in 15 years after being edged by New Westminster by just one point last year. The Bays have placed no worse than second at the provincial championships in 14 years.
Rounding out the top-five Island teams headed to the provincial high school meet, based on results from the Island championships, are St. Andrew鈥檚, Cowichan, Mount Douglas and Reynolds.
