Keiran Leboe has lofty goals for his first appearance on the national stage.
The 15-year-old has earned a place on Team B.C. at the 2013 Legion Youth Canadian Track and Field Championship, Aug. 9-11 in Langley, after topping the qualifying standard of 48 metres in the hammer throw. Leboe set a mark above 50m. With a couple weeks to practice, he's determined to etch his name in the Legion record books.
"The Canadian Legion record is only 53 metres, so I'd like to keep working and see if I can get up to 54 just to make sure nobody steals it the next year," said Leboe.
In addition to the hammer throw, the Grade 10 student at D.P. Todd secondary will also compete in javelin and discus at the Legion games. Leboe took up the hammer throw about three years ago on the advice of his Prince George Track and Field Club coach Mitch Elliot.
"My coach Mitch really liked hammer so I started doing it just to see if it was as fun as he said it was," said Leboe. "It gets your adrenaline pumping when you go super fast, spinning uncontrollably almost, but you still manage to get it out there."
Leboe said he joined the P.G. Track and Field Club after his kindergarten teacher noticed he was a good runner. But, it was the throwing disciplines Leboe found most intriguing and brought him his first success when he was eight.
"I remember the first time I threw javelin in my first competition I won by one centimetre," said Leboe. "It was pretty funny because the guy [I beat] had been doing it for two years before me. I went out there and the lady came and told me, 'hey, you must be a natural.'"
Before Leboe heads to Langley, he'll make a stopover in Kelowna, Aug. 1-4, for the 2013 B.C. bantam triple-A baseball provincial championship. Leboe is a pitcher for the Prince George bantam Knights. He also plays volleyball for the Prince George Kodiaks.
"Track and field really helps with conditioning for the other sports, it brings my vertical up for volleyball and it brings my arm speed up for baseball," said Leboe.
Talking with other track and field athletes about their techniques also help Leboe improve his own stances. A few weeks ago at the Kamloops Jamboree, Leboe said it was a treat to meet U.S. Olympian, hammer thrower Kibwe Johnson.
"He starts it off pretty slow but he can pick up speed at an amazing rate once he gets going," said Leboe. "He throws it around 80m. It's crazy."
Despite his natural abilities for the hammer throw, Leboe said he still has a lot of improvements to make before he can throw like Johnson.
"My coaches say I could be quite a bit better but I just haven't learned how to block properly," said Leboe. "After you're spinning and you get around to your last spin, you stop your body completely and throw the rest of your energy into the hammer and release it out. When you get going really fast, it's pretty hard to stop."
