Wagga sprinter Godfrey Okerenyang will come home with an individual silver medal after representing Australia at the Oceania Athletics Championships in Townsville this week.
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Okerenyang looked set to claim gold for his country in the under 18 men's 100m sprint only to be edged out right on the line by just 0.02 seconds by New Zealand's Dominic Overend.
To spectators, television commentators, viewers, and the man himself, it looked like a winning run.
"I did feel like I'd won it," Okerenyang admitted. "I was in front the whole race except just that last little bit."
Running into a headwind (-0.4) Overend won in 10.85 seconds, with Okerenyang running 10.87s.
It was less than a tenth of a second outside his personal best of 10.78s, set at the national junior championships in April this year.
"Yeah I was pleased with the time," he said. "I would've liked to go a bit quicker but the conditions didn't really help."
The Riverina Anglican College student ran 10.91s in his heat, with a slight tailwind and winding down at the finish.
Okerenyang will also run for Australia in the men's relay to close out the championships.
He was pleased with his efforts at the carnival, having rolled an ankle playing basketball at school last week.
In a year in which he's represented TRAC at basketball, rugby league and Aussie rules, Okerenyang said he'll now concentrate on playing football for Coolamon for the rest of the winter.
But his passion for athletics is back, and with performances to back it up, his focus is on qualifying for next year's world junior athletics championships in Nairobi, Kenya.
"I haven't been running consistently under 11 seconds, legally, before this," he said.
"I'll just go back and play footy for the rest of the year and work towards the world under 20s championships next year."
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