Aurora’s Ormond runs away with gold

November 30, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

It has been a whirlwind of a month for cross country star Cami Ormond.
The Aurora Eagles athlete, a Grade Ten student, opened November with her second junior girls cross country title in a row at the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association championships, and her fourth OFSAA title in the last twelve months.
Finishing the 4,200-metre race in an impressive 15 minutes and 23 seconds, Ormond crossed the line sixteen seconds ahead of her closest opponent.
The victory comes as no surprise: in the spring of her Grade Nine year, she earned gold in both the 1,500 and 3,000-metre races in the midget category, breaking a 30-year old record in the 3,000-metre.
“The competition at OFSAA cross country is awesome,” said Ormond. “I have so many great runners there to encourage me to go faster and do my best.”
Ormond, who also plays on Aurora High School’s Aurora Eagles’ basketball team, got into cross country and track at the elementary school level. Before long, she realized that long distance was her strong suit.
Shortly before high school, Ormond joined her first running team, and gave up rep basketball last summer to focus on running competitively.
She has since steadily climbed to the top at the regional, provincial, and even national levels.
“My strategy always depends on who my competition is, and what the conditions are,” said Ormond. “I tend to start slow and gradually speed up and pick people off throughout the race.”
The honours continued to pour in just this past weekend, taking part in the Canadian Cross Country Championships in Kingston, something Ormond said she was “super excited” about.
“My nationals meet was awesome. It was really fun to spend time with my team, and I loved having the opportunity to race against under 18 girls from all across Canada.”
Finishing in fourth in the four-km race, Ormond played a key role in Team Ontario bringing home provincial gold at the event.
Nick Mota, Joshua DeSouza, and Jonathan DeSouza, of the Newmarket Huskies, also placed fourth, second, and tenth respectively in the under-18 boys six kilometre race.
As for Ormond, she hopes that one day her running leads her to a spot on the Canadian Olympic team, possible alongside her sister Sion, who swims on the junior national synchronized swimming team.