The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Hard work, determination and dedication; these are three traits that distinguish 18 year-old Snow Lake track prodigy Ashton Lief. It is seldom a person of her scant years shows both the perseverance and potential to be the best that they can possibly be, at all that they do. Lief, a grade 12 honours student at J.H. Kerr School, participates in a number of sports. She is an accomplished figure skater, the captain and middle hitter on the Zone Champion Sr. Girls Varsity Volleyball team, the captain and high post on the Zone Champion Sr. Girls Varsity Basketball team, a cross-country runner, a middle distance runner, and a hurdler. In her sixth season of running for J.H. Kerr, she has won Zone competitions a number of times in the track and cross-country events that she participates in and has progressed on to both the Rural and City championships where she has performed on even par with the best the province has to offer. Just back from the Boeing Inter-provincial Track Meet in Winnipeg, Lief hasn't skipped a beat. In heavy training since September of 2003 for this event, she continues with lighter workouts in preparation for the upcoming outdoor track season. Her training for the Boeing meet consisted of endurance training (a one to two hour run) for about a month before the event. Followed by long slow intervals (5 - 8 km runs), speed intervals (30 x 100 meter Ð 15 x 200 meters) and power intervals (running up hills). She would alternate the speed and power intervals for the week leading up to the event. In addition to this training, she continued with work for strength (weight training) and stability. At the Boeing meet, Lief participated in three events: 1500 meters (5th place), 3000 meters (7th place), and hurdles (4th place). This meet appears to be one of many that the talented young runner will compete in and do well at; she states with a concentrated conviction that she envisages carrying on at the University level once she graduates. "My goal is to graduate and go on to University to take Athletic Training, Sports Medicine, or Physical Therapy," said Lief. "My love for running, competing, and a desire to be the best, keeps me focused. I hope to make the track/cross country team wherever I end up."
