Regan Yee is a national junior champion.
But it wasn’t so much the fact that Yee won first place that was surprising, it was the manner in which she did it.
Last weekend, at the 2013 Canadian Junior Championships, the Hazleton track star won the 2,000-metre steeplechase event with a personal best time of 6:46.82 — more than 15 seconds ahead of the second-place competitor.
“It’s an incredible result,” said Neal Currie, Yee’s coach.
“While I had expected her to win the steeplechase, winning it by over 50 metres was just amazing.
“She pulled away from the field on the first lap, of five, and ran almost the whole race way out in front.”
With the result, Yee is the only female in Canada of any age to run the race in under seven minutes this year.
“I was really focused on not falling, like last year,” she said.
“I’ve been training really hard all summer for this result, so it feels good to see the hard work paying off.”
Yee also placed fifth in the 3,000-m at the event.
Yee is competing at the provincial championships in Kamloops this weekend along with other Bulkley Valley Athletics Club members and is also hoping to earn a spot at the Pan Am Junior championships in Colombia in August.
A recent Hazelton Secondary School graduate, Yee is attending Trinity Western University on a track and field scholarship next year.