Four events, three medals.
Ryan Gaiesky's weekend at the Royal Canadian Legion youth national track and field championships in Ste-Therese, Que., went way beyond his own expectations.
Gaiesky, 17, ended up with a bronze-medal win in the final event of the meet, the men's 4 X 400 relay. The Prince George Track and Field Club member ran third in the order and helped the B.C./Yukon team (Dean Ellenwood of Langley, Jasper Schiedel of Vancouver, Nathan Mah of Burnaby) finish in 3:23.55, just behind Alberta (3:23.42). Ontario (Cody Pauli, Ruach Padhal, Khamal Stewart-Baynes and Nathan Friginette) won gold in 3:19.84.
Earlier Sunday in the 400m hurdles, Gaiesky finished 21st in 59.63. Schiedel won gold in 55.27.
"The previous years I hadn't come put with any medals or top-five finishes so I wasn't coming into this with any goal of winning a medal so to get three medals is pretty cool," said Gaiesky.
On Saturday, Gaiesky helped the B.C./Yukon team win bronze in the under-18 boys 4 X100m relay, teaming up with Mah, Alexander Savage of Langley and Anastas Eliopoulos of Vancouver.
The B.C. boys finished in 42.90 seconds, a second behind the gold-medalists from Ontario (Joey Daniels, Khamal Stewart-Baynes, Nathan Friginette and Samuel Adams), who clocked 41.97. The Flying Angels Academy of Toronto (Jordan Taylor, Emanuel Ajiroba, Garth Williams and Jelani Yorke) took silver in 42.70.
Gaiesky opened with a bronze medal in the 110-metre hurdles Friday.
In other local results Sunday, Shelby Jansen of the PGTFC advanced to the finals in the U18 girls 200m run and placed 14th overall in 25.83. Jansen's heat time 25.79. Emma Floris of Vanderhoof was 23rd in the heats in a field of 35 runners, clocking 26.14. Kyra Constantine of Ontario won the 200m event in 23.90.
On Saturday, 17-year-old Omar Medina of the PGTFC was 21st in the U18 boys long jump, traveling 5.98 metres. Ivan Nyemeck of Quebec won gold, clearing 7.02m.
