Speed Academy kids strike silver

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Published: Tuesday, 03 April 2007 22:38

Run down medals at provincial indoor championships

PICKERING -- Members of The Speed Academy showed fast tracks at the Ontario Minor Track Association Provincial Championships at York University recently.

The Academy sent five athletes to the indoor championships, with four returning with silver medals.

Mitchell Sharpe, 11, of Pickering, earned silver in the atom boys' 60 metres.

Nathaniel Rodney-Scarlette, 11, of Ajax, finished with a silver medal in the atom boys' 200 metres.

Thomas Murphy, 11, of Ajax, captured a silver medal in the atom boys' 400 metres. Nichalos Kissoon, 11, of Pickering, finished sixth in the same race, while Lucas McKaye, 11, also of Pickering, was seventh.

Sharpe, Rodney-Scarlette, Murphy and Kissoon teamed up for The Speed Academy in the atom boys' 4-x-200-metre relay, finishing with another silver medal.

The Speed Academy is the dryland conditioning program coached by Tony Sharpe, a Pickering resident who was an Olympic track and field bronze medallist in 1984. He's assisted by his wife, Colene Sharpe, who was a member of the Canadian national track and field teams from 1984 to 1986.

Sharpe notes all five of the boys compete in other sports (Sharpe in hockey and soccer; Rodney-Scarlette, Murphy and McKaye in soccer and Kissoon in hockey), but made a foray into track and field just to "see how they stacked up".

"Being an Olympian myself, I could see the talent in these kids," says Sharpe, who wasn't surprised by their performances at the provincials