Breakthrough
‘I’d say you can’t get much better than two OFSAA golds, it’s the perfect ending’
Kitchener runner wins two OFSAA golds
KITCHENER — His outdoor season might end this week, it might not.
Either way, Marcus Kemp is beyond satisfied.
The St. Mary’s student, who in April recorded a breakthrough victory at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational in California, closed the book on his school career with a pair of gold-medal performances at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations track and field championship in Toronto.
The 17-year-old Kemp, coached by Jeff Haller at the Speed River Track and Field Club, won this past Friday’s 1,500-metre senior race in 3:50.71, and one day later crossed the finish line in 8:25.32 to capture the 3,000-metre race at York University.
“It feels really good to end my (high school career) like that. I was looking for gold all year, training really hard, upping my mileage and stuff,” said six-foottwo, 140-pound Kemp.
“I’d say you can’t get much better than two OFSAA golds, it’s the perfect ending.”
Kemp used a strong kick to win both races, taking the lead with about 100 metres to go and holding on to win his fourth and fifth OFSAA medals. He won bronze medals in the same events in Grade 10 and finished in third in the junior race at the OFSAA cross-country championship.
Kemp now turns his attention to a pair of 1,500-metre races this week that could determine whether he earns a spot on the Canadian team that will compete at the July 10-15 IAAF world U20 championship in Tampere, Finland. He is at the Speed River Inferno meet in Guelph on Wednesday night and the London Distance Series 1,500-metre Night on Saturday in hopes of breaking the Athletics Canada standard of 3:48 needed to make the team that’ll travel to Finland.
“I’ve already had a great season, so it’s just whatever,” said Kemp of this week’s races. “It will be a nice extra if I qualify; if not, I’m fine with that.”
Kemp’s outdoor season started in outstanding fashion in California, where he defeated a strong field to win a 3,200-metre race in 8:50.95. Two months earlier, he won a 3,200-metre indoor race in Geneva, Ohio.
Kemp also competed for Canada in last year’s Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas.
He hopes that success on American soil will continue this summer when he competes for the Providence (Rhode Island) College Friars at the NCAA Division 1 level. Kemp agreed to the full scholarship prior to his recent run of success and eventually would like to replicate the success of St. Mary’s graduates Jaimie Phelan and Ben Flanagan, who both went on to win NCAA championships at the University of Michigan. Flanagan won the 3,000-metre race last week in Eugene, Ore., and Phelan turned the trick last year in the 1,500-metre race.
“Hopefully, one day I can win it like they did, that’s the ultimate goal,” said Kemp.
Kemp also paid visits to Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater before deciding on Providence, which competes in the 10-member Big East Conference.