You can only wonder what Ethan Foster may have been able to do had he been fully healthy.
Hampered by a wonky hamstring, the 17-year-old from Langley still managed to capture gold at the Canadian Legion youth track and field championships over the weekend.
Foster was competing in the youth division for the decathlon, and not only did he win the event, but he set both a personal record and a meet record in the process.
The championships were held over the weekend in Brandon, Man. and featured the top youth and midget aged competitors from across Canada.
And not only did Foster win gold, but he bettered his own personal best in the event by nearly 700 points, as well as setting a new meet record with 6,035 points — the previous mark was 5,725 points — and he won by 501 points.
“I went in expecting really good competition and it felt good to win,” he said.
This was one of two medals Foster won as he was part of the Team BC 4x400 relay squad which took bronze.
Foster also competed at the 2016 Legion championships, but failed to find the podium last summer, finishing sixth with 5,277 points.
“I wasn’t really consistent (last year) in all my events,” he said.
This time around, that consistency showed as he won three of the 10 events and was top-three in another six.
Foster was first in the 400m 1500m and pole vault, second in the 100m, long jump and discus, and third in the high jump, shot put and javelin. The lone event he failed to finish top three among the 10 was the 110m hurdles, where he came fifth.
And his 4.15m in the pole vault portion of the discipline set a new meet record.
This wrapped up a busy few weeks for Foster.
Earlier this month, he was in Winnipeg for the Canada Summer Games.
Despite competing with athletes in their early 20s, the soon-to-be Grade 12 student at D.W. Poppy Secondary finished seventh in both the pole vault and decathlon.
Foster, the defending B.C. high school track and field provincial champion in the pole vault, will now take a month off before he begins preparing for the indoor season.
As for his 2018 goals, Foster has set his sights on qualifying to represent Canada at the world junior track and field championships. To do so, he will need to improve his decathlon score to the qualifying score of 6,500.
In addition to Foster’s two medals, several other Langley athletes also found the podium at the Legion championships.
Cassidy Cardle won gold in the midget girls’ 1500m race walk, winning in a time of 7:07.2. She also set a meet record in the process. And in the midget girls’ javelin, Eniko Sarah won gold with a throw of 43.25m. Those were also personal bests for both competitors.
Aiden Grout won gold in the midget boys’ high jump, clearing 1.84m.
And Zach Wyatt won gold in the youth boys’ 2000m steeplechase with a time of 6:02.24 with twin brother Tate Wyatt taking silver.
