In June of 1994, as a freshman at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School, Sarah Junkin captured a bronze medal in the midget girls 80m hurdles race at the OFSAA Track & Field Championships, finishing sixth in the final of the 100m dash as well.

Yet it was clear, at least to the likes of Dick Moss and Julie Alleyn, that there was far more to the eldest of three children in the family, athletically speaking.

Sarah Junkin was a heptathlete.

Athletically, academically, spiritually, there was no way that this highly introspective now 42 year old resident of Guelph was going to be constrained to just a single pursuit, one basic layer, in any element of her life.

Where even the most gifted of grade nine track and field athletes in Sudbury might wander their way into three or four different skill sets, Junkin would be that outlier who would be far more comfortable in the realm of athletics that combines no less than seven separate disciplines.

It is part of her DNA, on so many levels.

“I was the trailblazer (of the family), the one who forged the path, strongly persistent to go after things with no fear - though maybe a lot of naivety,” she said. Athletically, the signs were all there.

“My mom said I ran before I walked,” Junkin laughed. “I was so hyper, my mom used to time me running around the house. I remember begging my parents to enroll me in as many sports as possible. I wanted to do everything.”

Ancestrally speaking, there was a lineage of speed and power, the very core of the heptathlete, that runs through the Junkin family tree. If genetics are part of this picture, so too is the cosmic alignment of fate, the nearly unfathomable collision of destiny and circumstance that would see the young prodigy encounter just the right support people at just the right time - on at least three separate occasions.

“I randomly met Dick Moss, maybe at an elementary school meet,” Junkin suggested. “I remember setting the grade eight 100m record, and Dick suggested hurdling. I was also trying rhythmic gymnastics, and it’s a bit of a convoluted story, but that helped make me an amazing hurdler because I was working on my flexibility.”

Even more critical, however, was the added presence of Julie Alleyn, a national caliber heptathlete back in the early 1980s who just happened to make her way to Sudbury just prior to Junkin commencing her high-school studies. “I got so lucky, because I got the greatest long-term athlete development, somewhat accidentally, because of great coaches,” said Junkin.

“I never experienced that burnout.”

What Junkin did experience, during her time as a Knight, was the best of both worlds.

A nicely diversified training program, one that would see coach Moss and athlete learning on parallel paths, would lay the groundwork to a performance at Junior Nationals that allowed Junkin to don the Canadian singlet and accompany her compatriots to Holland in her final year at Lo-Ellen.

Much closer to home, legendary LEP track mentors Joe Bacon and Doug Gingrich allowed her to graciously contribute to the team, any way that she could, without inhibiting the spectrum of workouts that favoured those seeking to master the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m dash, long jump, javelin and 800 metres - all simultaneously.

The environment fit Junkin to a “T”.

“I was always creatively exploring,” she noted. “Wherever there was somewhere to challenge myself, I always seemed to be doing that. I was allowed to do so much, I had so much freedom.”

Even a two year stint at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau (MO), a period which ultimately would leave Junkin unfulfilled, athletically, was not without a great deal of benefits and life lessons. “I don’t regret it at all, partly because of the cultural experiences - and the academics were good,” she said.

“There were lots of Canadians on the team, but there really wasn’t a heptathlon program at the school.”

And when time came for a change, Junkin needed to look no further than an acquaintance she had made in Holland, a Canadian track and field coach who enjoys legendary status in his home province of Saskatchewan.

“I knew within the first day of meeting him that he was my coach,” said Junkin. “I thought my career might be over before I ever really got started - but Lyle (Sanderson) was my beacon. Like Dick, like Julie, like everyone I’ve ever connected with, Lyle could mine the potential, supporting you and helping you.”

Junkin would spend four years competing with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, the final four years in the career of the coach who was inducted into both the Canadian Track and Field Hall of Fame, as well as the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame. Three of those years, the Huskies women’s team would capture the national banner.

In the remaining year, 2001-2002, Junkin would earn a CIAU gold medal, finishing first in the pentathlon (she was also a part of two gold medal winning relay teams at U SASK).

“I got so lucky again,” she said. “I was moving to a culture that was very similar to what I was accustomed to in Sudbury. I really latched on to that culture, one that was wide open, with no limits - anything is possible. It matched my personal freedom.”

In the two decades or so that have ensued since she last competed, Junkin would come full circle in Saskatchewan. Her work with Sask Sport would avail her to countless facets of involvement on the periphery of athletics in the province that she claimed was the best thing to ever happen to her.

Teacher, advocate, administrator, and so much more, Junkin would do it all. Central to that next phase of her journey was an introduction to yoga, to mental training, along with a friendship and partnership with Patricia Dewar - “my Lyle of yoga”, as she affectionately dubbed her.

“I got so lucky in sport, I got so lucky academically, and then I got so lucky spiritually,” said Junkin. And when she realized that “her life was no longer aligned, that she needed to let go and recalibrate”, it was time to head home, returning to Ontario.

“I chose a sabbatical that’s turned out to be a little more permanent than expected,” she said. The pandemic has caused many to reevaluate their path in life. Junkin simply began that process a little earlier. The end goal is not yet clear, as the northern product contemplates life after life after sport.

“I was guided to choose this,” she said. “I’m meant to keep exploring.”