MARYSTOWN, N.L. — Cabhan O’Keefe is fast. He proved that at the recent School Sports Newfoundland and Labrador (SSNL) varsity cross country provincials.
The Clarenville High student placed first out of 43 senior boys in the six-kilometre competition on Nov. 2 in Marystown, with a time of 20 minutes and 24 seconds.
The next closest time was over a minute slower than O’Keefe.
The 17 year old told The Packet that running is a hard sport. While he finds encouragement from his cross-country teams at Clarenville High and Middle, it’s an independent endeavour that takes a lot of work to succeed.
O’Keefe has been running cross-country for over a decade, with just a couple of breaks along the way.
“Running is just like a difficult, mental thing to make yourself do it because you’re by yourself … I felt it was definitely right for me to do it (this year) and I’m glad I did it.”
He says he wanted to make sure he participated in his senior year of high school after taking last year off.
At provincials, O’Keefe says he had run the trail-type course in the area before and it had two big hills at the beginning of each two-kilometre lap.
He says some strategy helped him pull ahead.
O’Keefe decided to get out in front to start and get a good pace going, keep an eye on who was close behind him and push himself on the two uphills.
“I think that’s a good area for me, the hills.”
Sure enough, O’Keefe says there was a very strong runner from Labrador close behind.
O'Keefe, however, was able to gain a large margin on the hills, continuing on to the win.
He says one of the main benefits of cross country running for him is that it helps his soccer skills.
He plays soccer with a club team in St. John’s, winning provincials with his under-17 team this past summer. He went on to compete with the team at nationals in P.E.I. in October, placing sixth, and even spending six weeks in England for training.
“Running, 100 per cent helps how I play soccer,” said O’Keefe. “Where I play centre-midfield, I can constantly just be running up and down the field because of my ability to run cross-country and stamina.”
Now, with the fall running season over, O’Keefe is still busy with sports. He plays on the CHS volleyball and basketball teams.
He summed up his school running career like this, “It’s sometimes a bit difficult, but when you do it, it’s one of the best feelings.”
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