Jarvis athlete qualifies for U16 Ontario vs Quebec dual meet
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Two of LaBron Arrendell’s best track and field attributes are sprinting and jumping.
Arrendell, 14, combined both skills competing in 60m hurdles, qualifying for the U16 Team Ontario vs. Team Quebec Championship Cup Dual Meet in Toronto on Feb. 10.
“I’m pretty excited for the hurdles,” said Arrendell, who also qualified in high jump. “I’m a little nervous… but I just want to try to do my best.”
The Ontario-Quebec championship is an indoor track and field meet featuring U16 athletes exclusively from Ontario and Quebec, alternating locations annually between the provinces.
Arrendell, who applied for a position on Team Ontario, qualified at a selection meet in Toronto on Jan. 13, winning hurdles and high jump.
New to hurdles, he first tried the sport in December at the Oakville Track and Field Club, based in Cayuga, which he had joined in late October. The Jarvis, Ont. athlete trains twice a week in Cayuga and once a week in Hagersville.
“The coach (Bruce Burton), he asked me to try hurdles.”
The challenge was learning the proper technique in a very short window of time. It took about four weeks to learn the skills and he competed in hurdles for the first time in Toronto on Dec. 28.
“I’ve got it down now.”
Arrendell, who is about 5’8”, jumped 1.50m at the Ontario qualifier, a personal best. He had competed in high jump from Grade 5-8 at Jarvis Community Christian School against schools from Haldimand, Brantford and Hamilton, but admitted he’s “more of a sprinter.”
He also finished third in 800m on Dec. 28, but his 60m hurdling debut did not go as well.
“Last in hurdles. The form was bad, I just hopped way too high over the hurdles.”
Two weeks later, after some intense training, he rebounded to win the 60m hurdles at the selection meet.
“It was a lot of improvement in my technique and I got a little bit faster. I took a whole second off and that was from working on it.”
Arrendell finished third in the 2023 Norfolk County Fair Young Canada Day road race. A Grade 9 student at Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Simcoe, his first high school track and field meets are coming up this spring.
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