Ryan Gaiesky picked a fine time to run a fast time.
With the eyes of the nation watching him compete Friday in the Royal Canadian Legion youth national track and field championships in Sainte-Thrse, Que. Gaiesky blasted his way to the medal podium in the under-18 boys 110-metre hurdles.
The 17-year-old Prince George Track and Field Club member got off to a bad start but still managed to stop the clock in a personal-best 14.65 seconds to claim the bronze medal. "I knew it was going to be a close race so I had to put everything into it," said Gaiesky.
"I stumbled at the start and I just kept getting faster and faster at the end. There were four of us really close and I just outdove them."
Joey Daniels of Kitchener, Ont., won gold in a record time of 13.71 seconds, while Anastas Eliopoulos of Vancouver won silver in 14.10. Daniels, the 110m hurdles silver medalist at the IAAF world youth championships a few weeks ago in Colombia, shattered Simon Leveille's old Legion Nationals mark of 13.74 set in 2007.
Gaiesky was fifth overall out of 25 runners in the heats in 14.80. Last year he finished sixth at the Legion finals in Langley. With two more events still to come, Gaiesky says his medal win takes a lot of the pressure off.
"This is definitely my top accomplishment right now, just because I've always tried to medal at nationals and I finally did get a medal, so I'm happy," said Gaiesky. "I'm much more confident now heading into the relay."
Gaiesky will be third in the order for the B.C./Yukon team today in the 4 X 100m relay. Nathan Mah of Burnaby will start, followed by Alexander Savage of Langley. Gaiesky will hand the baton to the anchor, Eliopoulos.
"We're all really fast, said Gaiesky. "Mah and Eliopoulos are both under 11 seconds for the 100 and me and Alexander are pretty low 11s."
Gaiesky also competes in the 400m hurdles on Sunday.
In other local results, Emma Floris, an unattached athlete from Vanderhoof, finished 26th out of 43 runners Friday in the U18 girls 100m heats. Floris posted a time of 12.74 seconds and did not advance to the finals.
Floris, 17, is entered in the 200m event on Sunday along with PGTFC member Shelby Jansen, 16.
Jansen's seed time of 25.62 seconds in the 200 is slightly quicker than Floris's 25.83.
Jansen will also line up for today's 400m run.
Omar Medina of the PGTFC, 17, will compete in the U18 boys long jump on Sunday. Medina's best throw so far is 6.45m.
