The Valley Royals Distance Group had a breakthrough day on Sunday, April 24, in the Universal April Opener. Riley Simmonds, Arata Nakanishi, Will Van Schagen, Sam May, Mark Molina, Arie Wassenaar, William Burke, and Sam Rasquinha represented us on the men’s side while Zoe Unger, Adrianna Buitelaar, and Jasmine Halwas represented us in the women\’s.
Mark Molina took on 27 open men in the 800m event and was just edged out at the tape finishing 3/100s of a second behind Max Holmes, the defending provincial champion. Mark ran a personal best of 2:00.88.
Jasmine Halwas had a big day and stepped up her performance to a whole new level in the 800m, with a personal best of 2:34.83 – over ten seconds faster than her last performance.
Riley Simmonds, Will Van Schagen and Arie Wassenaar ran big personal bests also moving up a level, and Samuel May and Arata Nakanishi are starting to come back to form after re establishing consistent training with big runs and personal bests of their own. William Burke and Zoe Unger placed great opening marks on the board in the 3000m event with 10:11.22 and 10:58.13 performances respectfully.
Almost every athlete on our team set a personal best at 800m or 3000m, and those that did not were right on their marks.
Super day Royals. – Coach Scott
