Chapter 5

The drive to Ridlin Stadium was only thirty minutes, but it seemed like forever. It doesn’t help much with Mr Smith, the assistant coach piloting the school bus.

“He’s not Paul Walker in ‘Fast and the Furious’. I think if we walked, we would have been there by now.” Peter chuckled.

“Tell me about it, Pete,” I replied.

Then a voice from behind yelled, “In your own right time Mr Smith!” We looked back; Tony was sitting in the back row with his henchmen on either side. He lay there stretched out with his hands on the back of his head. We looked at each other while turning back towards the front.

Ridlin Stadium was all prepared for the event today. Each school had a section in the stands for its spectators. The stands started to fill up with people, I found our part of the stadium and started looking for my parents. Then I saw her; Emma began to wave so I can see her. Next to her on the left were mum and dad looking all nervous. From all the preparations I made during the year, I guess they were part of it as well. Every time I had an injury, mum would be there with an ice pack. When I was down due to a rough day on the track, dad would be there to raise my morale. I presume that is a parent’s duty towards his child.

We found our section of the stadium and made our way to our benches to start preparing ourselves. I was on one knee adjusting the laces on my running spikes when the overhead speaker on the stand announced, “Can all athletes participating today please come to the changing rooms to have their blood test please.”

Pete responded, “Shit!”

“Please tell me you haven’t been taking the shit he’s been giving us?” I asked with a worried look on my face.

“Are you kidding, they went straight into the garbage bin.”

We started to make our way to the changing rooms. As we were standing in the queue, I felt a pat on my shoulder. Looking behind me; it was Tyrone. I smiled at him; we hugged each other. While we waited, we started chatting about how all these blood tests were something they did with professional athletes, that now it was starting to get implemented into schools as well.

I was facing Tyrone while he was speaking to me, over his shoulder, I saw Tony approaching just behind him while staring at me.

“Tyrone, whatever happens, do not lose your cool,” I warned him.

“Well if it isn’t the two bum chums,” Tony snapped.

Tyrone slowly turned shaking his head. “You know something, I was a fool, to let you get to me for so long.” He replied as he turned back to carry on talking with me. Tony just frowned as he walked away.

“Now that wasn’t too hard, was it, Tyrone?”

Everyone had their blood test then started making their way back to their section of the waiting area. Each Coach was giving instructions to the athletes before the event started. Mr Giordano was giving advice as well, just to his son instead of everyone in the team. When he finished, everyone in our team came straight to me asking me various questions like what spikes to put on their shoes, breathing exercises, how they should run the qualifying race, etc. I believe they approached me for moral motivation mostly, not to confirm what they already knew.

The qualifying races started with the 110m hurdles. First, I was glad that I wasn’t in that race; the hurdles and I were not the best of friends. Tony won the first heat, and Tyrone won the second heat. After finishing his race, I went to congratulate him with a handshake and a hug.

I think that did not go down too well with the coach. He came over to us saying to Tyrone in a low tone so no one can hear, “Why don’t you go over there where your kind is,” at the same time looking at a crowd of dark-skinned boys.

Before he left, Tyrone said to me, “I depend on you for the 800m and 400m. Okay?” Coach looked at us all confused while Tyrone was going back to his team.

My qualifying heat was up next, the 800m. All the athletes started to prepare themselves for their starting positions. Everyone was lined up, ready to initiate the race. On your marks, get set, go! It was a false start. A boy from Goff’s School had begun before the starting pistol went off. We all went back to our starting positions, getting ready again. On your marks, get set, go! Bang! The race got under way, the first four hundred meters I proceeded with my usual strategy, keeping the same pace as the other racers. After the first lap, I sprinted around the track, just about finishing first by a couple of feet.

As I was walking back to my bench, I saw Tony approaching me opposite. As soon as he was a couple of meters away, he shouts so everyone could hear him. “What happened there? I see your time wasn’t too good today!” he exclaimed while chuckling. I looked at him as I just walked passed him. I sat on the bench, got my smartphone out of my sports bag I saw I had a message; it was from Emma.

Emma: “Everything OK?”

Me: “Everything is perfect, just working on my strategy.”

Emma: “Good luck for the next race.”

I looked up in the stands; mum and dad were smiling while Emma started waving at me at the same time blowing kisses. How much I wanted to go up in the stands to give her a big hug.

The qualifying heats went on until 2 pm. By then all the athletes were glad that part was all over. Many were glad they passed, whereas some left disappointed. My friend Pete was one of the latter. I approached him; I wanted to comfort him.

He just sighed, “I don’t want to talk about it, Jack,” then just walked away.

As I was about to follow him, Emma came behind me to hug me. “Let’s go to the picnic area; your parents are there to have something to eat.” I took her by the hand; we went while worriedly trying to spot Pete in the crowd.

As soon as my parents saw me, my mum hugged me then my dad hugged me while he picked me up giving me one of his bear hugs.

From behind, I heard Mr Brown shout out, “Put him down we don’t want him injured during the finals!”

Dad answered, “Straight away coach.”

He started putting me down slowly. When he let go of me, we all started laughing. We all sat together, had our lunch, Tyrone and I had some fruit as we didn’t want to be too bloated for the finals, even though we had a couple of hours until then.

When we finished Mr, Brown took Tyrone and me aside to give us some final advice. As he was talking to us, I saw he kept on looking behind me.

Someone else bellowed, “Jack, get your butt over there with your fellow athletes!” I recognised the voice; it was Mr Giordano.

As I was turning around to say something I felt on my chest my dad’s hand. He said. “I think the races are about to start; we better start making our way to the track. Come on, ladies, let’s go to the stands. Mr and Mrs Brown, would you like to join us?”

Mr Brown smiled at my dad while he answered, “It will be our pleasure.”

I had qualified for the 400m and 800m; I was surprised to make it in the 200m as well. I had three races I needed to do well. Tyrone worked more on short distance sprints, 110m Hurdles, 100m and 200m. Both of us needed to impress some scouts so we could get a scholarship to university.