A strong performance from the Air Blastoff Lions crew two weeks ago at the Ontario U14/U16/U18 Track & Field Championship featured an interesting mix of well-established stars (Annabelle Richardson, Melina Doiron, etc...), newcomers to the club (Mikko Leinala) and teens just starting to carve out a reputation in the sport (Yuvraj Singh).

And for as much as Nehemiah Esmie is clearly a known commodity in these parts for those who follow youth track and field, he is now reaching that age where comparables on a provincial scale are far more interesting, even as he branched off to the tetrathlon, a non-customary offering in this sport.

Finishing third in the tetrathlon (80m hurdles / 200m dash / shot put / high jump), Esmie would claim second place in the U14 Boys Javelin, his toss of 29.60 metres trailing only Kaelen Smith (37.12m).

In terms of gold medal winners, Annabelle Richardson (U16 - 100m dash - 12.62; 12.50 in heats) and Yuvraj Singh (U14 - 300m - 40.91) showed the way, with both young speedster also chipping in with a bronze medal performance as well (Richardson - 200m - 25.41; Singh - 800m - 2:18.61).

Mikko Leinala was the sole Air Blastoff teammate to join Esmie in walking off as a silver medal winner (U16 - 100m hurdles - 14.64), while Amanda Syncox mounted the podium in the U18 400m hurdles (bronze - 1:06.49).

Just outside of the top three was Nadia MacDonald (U18), fourth in the long jump (5.19m) and fifth in the 400m hurdles (1:07.96).

The Athletics Ontario sanctioned meet was hosted at Terry Fox Stadium at Chinguacousy Park in Brampton.