It was a record-breaking weekend for Cochrane track star Sophia Nowicki.
The St. Timothy High School student had an amazing run at the Alberta Summer Games in Leduc as she recorded a personal best time (10:32) in the 3,000m race on Saturday to take home a silver medal.
“I’ve never ran a time like that before,” the 17-year-old Nowicki said. “My personal best had previously been at provincials. I was looking at the list of competitors on Friday night and saw that the top three times were a quite a jump from fourth place, which is where I started. The top girls were running 10:33, 10:34, and 10:35, so I was 20 seconds slower.
“I was a little worried but it worked out.”
She knew she would have to increase her time and put on the performance of a lifetime if she wanted to be a medal contender, and despite doing that and breaking a previous Summer Games record of 10:37, she was unable to take home the top prize. Zone 3 runner Emma Hubbard who recorded a rocket-fast time of 10:26 took the gold.
“I have no idea how I ran such a good race,” Nowicki admitted. “I think it was down to the fact I didn’t stress myself out and tried not to over think things going in. I just listened to the advice my coach gave me and went with that.”
She couldn’t have asked for a better performance at her first Summer Games. Nowicki went to the event with no idea of what to expect, and walked away with more confidence than ever before.
“I honestly didn’t have a lot of expectations for (the Games) because I didn’t know what they were going to be like,” she said. “I heard it was a lot of fun and really exciting. Talking to other girls that had been here before, they said this year was much better organized than the last tournament so it was really nice and a great experience.”
With track and field season essentially over, Nowicki will now be looking to hit the trails for the rest of the summer to pursue her true passion: cross-country running.
“The only reason I do track is actually for cross-country,” she admitted. “I’m excited to get started, and over the summer I’ll mainly be doing hill and base training when I’m away from mid-August to September.”
