And they're off: The unique 3x400 relay final gets off to a quick start

To bring to a close a series of sprint practices run by former OFSAA double-gold relay medalist Darian Cheng, the Piranhas participated in the 1st Annual Run for Robby Relays at the track at Central Tech High School.

Everyone who has run at the track at Central Tech knows how brutal the surface is. What looks like a rubber track from a distance is actually just darker asphault. However, it was the only free track in the area and for the past while, the team has been bearing with the problem.

After going through an extensive warm-up and some technical drills, the early morning events got under way.

Sprinters were seeded by their 200m qualifying times and then placed into teams accordingly. With the teams not predetermined before the day of the relays, teams had to gel quickly in the semi-finals and finals for the 3x400m relay. In the end, the team made up on Mark Daly, Denise Luong and Arun Nayak stole the show. Darian Cheng was caught trying to coach his relay team to jump the start but he was given a stern warning by Coach Rob Chang, who alsodoubled as the team mascot for the event.

Despite comments like, "hooray for long distance running", "I hate sprinting" were are silenced after a post-workout meal. Despite the bad surface and cold weather, the team perservered and made it through the most painful 1 km they had ever run, ending their early morning with a hearty meal.