Coquitlam sprinter James Linde finished second in the men’s 200m race at Thursday’s Harry Jerome Classic.
It was the top performance of several athletes from the Tri-Cities who competed at the 36th annual event, which was held at Burnaby’s Swangard Stadium.
Linde’s time of 21.17 seconds was just behind his teammate from the Coquitlam Cheetahs Track Club, Jerome Blake, who ran the race in 20.89.
The race was Linde’s fastest of the year, but it was almost half a second off his personal best, 20.70, that he ran in Ottawa, at the Canadian championships two years ago.
Nick Ayin, a Gleneagle secondary grad, finished fourth in the race.
In the men’s 100m, Linde finished fourth, .37 seconds behind the winner, Toronto’s Aaron Brown, while Ayin placed fifth.
Centennial grad Nathan George finished third in the men’s 400m race. The former BC Athletics junior male athlete of the year was .8 seconds back of winner Austin Cole.
In other track events, Heritage Woods grad Josh Kozelj finished 16th in the men’s 3000m event and Coquitlam’s Olivia Willett was 12th in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.
In the field, Port Coquitlam javelin thrower Jarrett Chong finished fourth with a top throw of 59.28 metres. That was almost 20 metres less than the winning throw by American Riley Dolezal, and more than four metres shy of his personal best, 63.40 metres, that he achieved just three weeks ago at a meet in Kelowna.
Another javelin thrower from Port Coquitlam, Brittni Wolczyk, finished fourth in the women’s event that was won by Ariana Ince of the United States. Jv Patry-Smith finished seventh.
High jumper Eric Chatten, who’s from Coquitlam, placed fourth in the men’s competition. He cleared 2.11 metres on his third attempt, but failed in three tries to jump 2.16 metres. His personal best is 2.18 metres.
Jasmine Lew, of Coquitlam, finished seventh in the women’s long jump, with a best leap of 5.87 metres in six rounds. The event was won by Canadian Christabel Nettey, who jumped 6.56 metres.
