Picton’s Cole Norton helps Canadian team bring home gold and silver

Cole Norton (front) poses in Trinidad with the gold medal his team won in the 4 x 100 metre high school boys relay. He and teammates Deion Barker, Graeme Thompson and Brandon Bobb competed on the weekend at the Trinidad and Tobago Relay Carnival at Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.

International and regional high school teams from Canada, USA, Suriname, Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua and Trinidad and Tobago competed at the Relay Carnival. Norton qualified by placing third at a York University Open Meet. The top two were to go but one person wasn’t a Canadian citizen so Norton got the go-ahead.

“I ended up being the only boy under 17 going to Trinidad as I competed with the senior and all ages men,” said Norton, a member of the Pickering Speed Academy. “I represented Canada although our uniforms say Ontario because we were the only province going.”

The PECI student also earned a silver in the 1x1x2x4 medley relay, running the second leg which was 100 meters. He placed fourth in the open men 1x1x2x4 just 15 minutes after, but did not have a solid 400m runner for a better showing.

Beside coming home with gold and silver medals, Norton was also pleased to have his picture taken with Jeremy Wariner who won the Olympic 400m in 2004. They were staying at the same hotel.

Norton’s next stop is the high school track season where he hopes to win his way to the Ontario Federation Secondary School Association 100m event.