Lisk wins silver medal in hurdles at track and field championships

MOUNT FOREST – Grade 10 Wellington Heights Secondary School student Declan Lisk won a silver medal in the 100-metre junior men’s hurdles at the OFSAA Provincial Track and Field Championships in St. Catharines June 4 to 6.

His journey began at the District 4/10 Track and Field Championships on May 5 and 11 in Guelph, where  Lisk won first place in junior men’s 100m hurdles, the 300m hurdles and the long jump. He also set new school records for all three events.

At the CWOSSA (Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association) Track and Field Championships on May 20 and 21 in Cambridge, Lisk won first in the junior men’s 100m hurdles, third in the 300m hurdles and sixth in long jump, again setting new school records in all three events.

At the OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) West Regional Track and Field Championships from May 28 to 29 in Cambridge, Lisk focused on hurdles and finished in first place in the junior men’s 100m race, with a time of 14.43 seconds, and first place in the 300m event, with a time of 40.7 seconds – yet again setting two new school records.

At the OFSAA championships preliminaries, Lisk finished second in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.04 and seventh in the 300m hurdles with a time of 41 seconds, which qualified him for the finals in both events. 

In the finals, Lisk shattered the Wellington Heights school record yet again in the 100m hurdles (13.76 seconds), earning him the OFSAA silver medal.  

In the 300m hurdles final, Lisk finished in fourth (41.38 seconds), less than  a second away from landing on the podium.

Lisk has been training three to four times a week at the Laurel Creek Track and Field Club in Waterloo for the past two years. 

He just started running hurdles last summer, while competing in a pentathlon with the Laurel Creek club. That’s when Lisk said he “noticed that my times in the 100m hurdles in the pentathlon were faster than last year’s OFSAA gold medal winner, so I thought I would try hurdles this year.”  

Reflecting on his track and field season this year at Wellington Heights, Lisk said, “It was a very fun year.  Especially since more people came out this year for our school track team.  It made it a lot more fun.”

Lisk credits his mother, Brianne O’Driscoll, for supporting him throughout his track and field career as a volunteer coach with both the Wellington Heights and Laurel Creek clubs.  

Lisk said his mother has a lot of experience both as a coach and also as an athlete herself in high school and university, where she competed in track and field.

Asked about his next goals as an athlete, Lisk said he’s “trying to get a time standard at an upcoming club meet in the 110-metre hurdles in order to compete at the CTFL (Canadian Track and Field League) Trials.”  

The CTFL Trials will be held in Ottawa on June 27 to 28 at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility, where many of Canada’s best athletes will compete over the course of the weekend.