11-year-old gets green light to race after deputy minister steps in, goes on to win
Not only was 11-year-old Abby Lewis cleared to race at a cross-country event, the Halifax student went on to win over the entire field
A Grade 6 student who was originally denied entry to a Nova Scotia cross-country race was permitted to compete after a protest was filed, as reported on by the Chronicle Herald. And, you guessed it, she won.
RELATED: High schoolers share the win at Halifax cross-country race.
Abby Lewis, a student at Beaver Bank-Monarch Drive Elementary School was the winner of the junior girls (under-14) cross-country race at Point Pleasant Park in Halifax on Thursday. She’s 11. Originally, because Lewis attends what is designated as an ‘elementary school,’ she was denied entry because the race is open to students from a junior high, middle school and high school, according to the Chronicle Herald. (11-year-olds are eligible to race if they attend a junior high, middle or high school.) The Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation (NSSAF) put on the Capital Region Cross-Country Championships, a qualifier for provincials.
Shawn Lewis, Abby’s father, protested to the NSSAF and the education department to allow his daughter to race. Lewis says that the deputy minister of education and early childhood development, Sandra McKenzie, “convinced NSSAF board members in a meeting Wednesday evening to allow Abby to compete.” As of Wednesday, she was not cleared to race.
Lewis won the 4K in 15:29, nearly one minute ahead of the next closest competitor.
“The department reached out to the NSSAF to encourage that they find a way to consider current school configurations within their regulations to ensure equity of opportunities for students of the same age and grade levels,” an education spokeswoman told the Herald in an email on Thursday. The school principal at the school Lewis attends signed off “to cover insurance liability” clearing Lewis to race.
In May, Lewis completed the Blue Nose 5K in 19:29, a five-minute improvement on her time from the same race a year before. She won the Valley Harvest 5K in Wolfville, N.S. last weekend in an identical 19:29. Shawn Lewis says of his daughter racing, “I’m glad it went our way and they let her compete. I think it’s not about the winning. I think she won before she even started today.”
“I think running’s really, really fun, I just love it. I like pushing myself to the limit, working really hard,” the runner says.
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