Sprinter pushing her personal best
Victoria Tachinksi looking to make bigger strides
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This article was published 14/03/2016 (3771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
It’s not always about winning for one of the province’s top track athletes.
Victoria Tachinski, a 16-year-old student athlete from Vincent Massey Collegiate, is at the top of the rankings in Manitoba when it comes to the 400-metre and 800-metre races.
Tachinski holds both the indoor and outdoor provincial records in the 400 (54.05, 53.76), as well as the 800-metre indoor record (youth 2:09.72, as of August 2015). She is also ranked No. 1 nationally this year in the indoor 400, with a time of 54.38.
However, the Grade 11 student admits when she competes her focus isn’t on records or what other people think about her performance, especially since she’s been attracting the attention of college recruiters.
“It’s more about how I feel after my race,” Tachinski said. “I’ve got to focus on running for myself. It’s not about running for other people and that’s something I’ve learned over the past year because I’ve been getting a lot more attention on me.”
Since the 2015 outdoor track season, Tachinski said she’s gotten faster, stronger and has developed techniques to better prepare for race day. Part of her growth came from competing at the IAAF World Youth Championship in Colombia, last July 15 to 19.
In her first event outside of North America, Tachinski ran the 400 in 54.43 and finished ninth overall.
Though it wasn’t her best performance, Tachinski said she is still happy about her race and the experience overall provided lessons she can apply at home.
“I learned how to prepare myself and prepare my body to run that many races in a row,” Tachinski explained. “The really big difference between that competition and a normal competition was that there are rounds.”
The event was also good preparation for future international events and qualifying for the world junior event this summer.
“Being with other cultures and getting an Olympic style of experience was great. I loved it,” she said. “The highlight was that I ran on the relay team (4×400 metre co-ed) and we won a bronze medal.”
Coach Andy Tough, of Stride Ahead Tough Track, has worked with Tachinski for nine years and said they are hoping to get more high-level competitions in before worlds. Tachinski recently competed in New York in the New Balance Indoor Nationals and has a few more college level meets arranged where she’ll continue to develop her race experience.
“We’ve made (running) a long-term goal,” Tough said. “Not just year to year but looking four and eight years down the road, so that keeps it fresh and lets her see where we’re going to.”
“It’s important to keep her grounded in the sense of not to be bigger than she is,” he added. “It can be a lot of pressure so we focus on the process and not worry about outcome.”