Okanagan teen blazing trail to top of the world

Kelowna teenager Taryn O’Neil is in the middle of a successful running season.

The Grade 12 student at George Elliot Secondary School competed at the U 20 Pan American Championships in Trujillo, Peru this past weekend, winning a silver medal in 9:22.06.

The top top junior (U-20) athletes from Canada were selected to the team.

Taryn was selected based on her 9:28 performance at the Langley Pacific Invitational on June 16, which gave her the top seed leading in the Canadian Junior Championships, held July 6 in Ottawa.

She didn’t have her best race at Nationals, finishing sixth, but she bounced back like a true champion to have her best race ever, setting a six-second personal best and B.C. Youth (U-18) record at the Pan Am Championships.

Taryn has three more years as a U-20 athlete and was one of the youngest athletes in the race — she raced with poise and confidence, moving up through the last 600 metres of the race into second place behind American Taylor Werner (finished first year at University of Arkansas).

It was Team Canada’s best finish at the Pan Am Junior Championships in 30 years.

Taryn is on quite a roll this summer: she has take 40 seconds off her 3,000 metre personal best and recently ran 4:22 in the 1,500 metres (20 second personal best) since 2016 and is now one of the fastest high school runners in North America.

She is home for two days before heading to Winnipeg for the Canada Summer Games where she will race U-23 athletes in the 1,500 metres.

She is then home for a week before heading back to Manitoba for the Legion National Youth Track and Field Championships in Brandon for the 1,500 metres and 3,000 metres Aug 11-13.