On a snowy afternoon at Fanshawe Golf Membership in London, Ont., 16-year-old Athena Andrecyk delivered a historic efficiency to win the ladies’s U20 8K on the 2024 Canadian Cross Nation Championships. She is the youngest athlete to win the Canadian U20 title in a decade.
Andrecyk got here out on high in 29:02, competing in opposition to runners two to 3 years older. She completed 20 seconds forward of Nova Scotia’s Abby Lewis and Calgary’s Charlotte Sinke. When requested in a post-race interview if the win shocked her, Andrecyk advised Canadian Operating that she felt sturdy after the primary lap and grew assured she might preserve her lead.
The U20 Canadian title capped a stellar fall season for Andrecyk, who gained the Ontario highschool championships (OFSAA) final month in Ottawa as a Grade 11 pupil. “It feels wonderful to finish my 2024 season on a excessive notice,” she shared.
Andrecyk will now take some well-earned downtime earlier than getting ready for the Ontario highschool observe season within the spring. Wanting forward, she says her long-term aim is to compete on the NCAA collegiate stage within the fall of 2026.
Mulugeta storms to males’s U20 title
Yemane Mulugeta, one in every of Canada’s brightest younger distance operating skills, gained the lads’s U20 8K title on the Canadian Cross Nation Championships.
The 19-year-old from Surrey, B.C. displayed tactical intelligence, taking part in a sport of cat and mouse with Quebec’s Xavier Perras-Phaneuf, who led for the primary 4 kilometres. Mulugeta reeled him in with one lap to go, then surged forward to safe the junior males’s crown in 24:42.
Perras-Phaneuf held on for second in 24:56, whereas Kingston’s Angus Skinner rounded out the rostrum with a bronze-medal end in 25:10.
For full outcomes from the 2024 Canadian Cross Nation Championships, click on right here.