Tracking Down And Lifting Up!
Local Special Olympians medaled in track (above) and powerlifting in the annual Bar Bender event (below) last weekend at Lakeland High School. Photos by Jason Norman
Last weekend, a group of youth track squads from south Hampton Roads hit the asphault at Lakeland High School. As their high school counterparts went at it for the Eastern Region title across the James River at Newport News' Todd Stadium, the younger population took their first steps - literally - toward that level.
But right in the middle of things, everyone took a few steps back, and gave someone else the spotlight. Someone (or ones) in a different type of competition.
As the local Special Olympics chapter took the field, everyone suddenly had a common reason to cheer - and the participants didn't let them down.
Charging down the track, one two feet or four wheels. Gunning the shotput like a golf ball. Showing the crowd exactly what's behind the meaning of Special Olympics.
"I was shocked," Lakeland alumnus Tiffany Patty said of the crowd's reaction. I didn't know they were going to do that." She medaled in the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
While current Lakeland student Billy Tew was slaloming down a 50-meter stretch of cones in his wheelchair, Wayne Allen fired the shotput 31 feet, a personal best for him.
"I feel great," Allen said. "(Throwing the shotput) isn't hard. I throw it real far."
Inside the school, another group of Olympians were doing their thing at the annual Bar Bender powerlifting event. Everyone was gearing up for the state games, to be held June 11-13 in Richmond.
Jessie Thacker, one of only two female competitors, was named the event Best Lifter (note: not the best female lifter). The award is based on a compilation of percentage of weight lifter, compared to the body weight of the participant. Thacker deadlifted 230 pounds - MUCH more than her actual poundage - and finished the day by gunning up 465 pounds (the event also included the bench press and squat).
"I have no idea," Thacker said of the secret to her success. "I just do it. You just practice over and over. I don't know what the weight (I'm lifting) is until after I do it."
With a total of 840 pounds in the three lifts, Robert Hutchinson took home the top lift title of the afternoon.
"I like the squat because I'm good at it," he said. "I like hanging out with the big boys, all my teammates."
