High schooler De Smet cruises to gold at international track meet

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/02/2024 (953 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Whatever expectations Annika De Smet had for her first U.S. meet — and they weren’t much — were left trampled in her path.

The Grade 10 runner from Vincent Massey Collegiate struck gold in the women’s 1,600-metre final at the Simplot Games at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho last weekend.

De Smet was uncertain about how she’d fare at the largest track and field meet of her life but quickly found she was more than deserving of her place after pacing 160 participants in the preliminary race and then running 4:50.26 in the finals, the best time by more than three seconds.

“I was a little shocked,” De Smet said of her initial reaction to the winning time. “I was going into it wanting to do my best, but also not knowing how I would do with the competition because it is very different.”

The Simplot Games is one of the premier high school indoor track and field events in the U.S., welcoming more than 2,000 athletes from around the world — a handful of whom have gone on to win Olympic medals. De Smet was one of four Manitobans to make the trip, along with Winnipeg runner Noah Neves, sprinter Elijah Falade and Arborg high jumper Sydney Burak.

Neves (St. Paul’s High School) placed eighth in the men’s 400m finals while Falade (St. Boniface Diocesan) and Burak (Arborg Collegiate) did not compete in their respective finals.

“It was very exciting. Lots of new experiences with the wood (banked) track and then a 1,600m too,” said De Smet, who typically runs in the 1,500m event.

The smile still hasn’t left De Smet’s face, and it’s for good reason. A gold medal continues a stellar start to her calendar year. Earlier this month, after finding out she’d been selected for the Simplot Games, De Smet set a U18 provincial record in the 1-km race at the Bison Open with a time of 2:53.14, before hundreds of university athletes also competing.

Indeed, the teen is seeing the fruits of her labour and it’s serving as a major confidence boost heading into the rest of the year.

“A lot. It’s definitely been nice,” she said. “But also, it’s been a lot of work too because my workouts have been harder and I’ve been putting in more time at the track.

“It’s nice that my hard work has been paying off.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X:@jfreysam