Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Carter Free saved his personal best for the big stage of the U20 Pan Am Games in San Jose, Costa Rica last weekend, running the 1,500 metres in a time of 3.48, capturing silver for Team Canada.
While not technically better than the 19-year-old Napanee native’s personal best of 3.47, when factoring in the altitude of Costa Rica, that time would have shattered his previous best set here in Canada.
“The whole adrenaline of the big stadium, wearing Team Canada and having my teammates there and wanting to do well, that all played a factor,” Free said of how he was able to set a new personal best.
It was quite the showing for Free, who was taking part in his first international competition. He shared the podium with Canada’s Foster Malleck, who finished first.
“Coming into the race with my teammate Foster Malleck, our goal was to go one-two,” said Free. “We knew it would be insanely tough, but we knew we had a shot because we were ranked pretty high too. We were just thrilled to go one-two.”
Originally expecting to run a qualifying race before the finals, Free had to quickly adapt when event organizers announced there would be no qualifier. Instead they decided to run all 16 runners in one finals.
“It was packed,” said Free. “I’ve never had that many guys running the field before. It was a lot of nudging at the start of the race.”
Running against the top under 20 athletes from across the Americas, Free was able to find his opening and broke away from the pack.
Because a fellow Canadian took the top spot, Free got to live every athlete’s dream, hearing his country’s anthem played while standing on the podium.
“It was an experience I’ll never forget in my life,” said Free. “It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. It meant the world to me being up there on that podium during the national anthem.”
Now back in Napanee, he’ll take a short one week break before focusing on his other sport, cross-country running.
In the fall he’ll be a member of the St. Claire College cross-country team.