A Williams Lake athlete had a part in breaking a World Record for a relay race time.
Pat Harton and his team of relay racers have recently broken a world record for the 4X800 relay at The BC Masters Indoor Championships in Kamloops. The event lasted 3 days, starting from February 25th to the 27th . Harton and his team were in the 75-79 age category for the relay race.
The previous world record was held by a team from Spain which had a record of 13:44.84, which was set just last year. Harton and his relay team set the new world record time with 13:07.96, which was more than 36 seconds faster. The average time for each runner was 3:16, with Harton’s time at 3:11.
Harton spoke about what it felt like to break the world record with his team. “It was jubilation, totally. We thought after the second lap that we had a chance, and we got more excited, and people who were watching were getting excited too. There was lots of people watching.”
The team members in running order were – Barrie Dargie (Sidney, BC), Tom Ukonmaanaho (Prince George, BC), Pat Harton (Williams Lake, BC) and Mark Stewart (Campbell River, BC).
Harton was originally a spare for the relay team, but was added to the roster after a member couldn’t make it to the race. From then on, he started training hard for the race “I did a lot of hill work at home, until the snow got to deep, and got to cold and then after that it was on the treadmill.”
He also spoke about his plans on if he’ll continue to relay race. “Right now, I think I’ve had enough of relay running, because it’s very stressful.”
Something going on in the Cariboo you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
