Nick Laporte battled through injuries to compete at the National Track and Field Championships in Montreal but was eliminated in his opening heat Thursday.
The North Bay native finished with a time of 11.29 seconds in heat 3 of the 100 m preliminaries which was good for third in his heat but not good enough for him to move on to the semi-finals.
Laporte says only the top 10 sprinters qualified for the semi’s with the last qualifying time well ahead of Laporte at 10.76.
The loss put an end to Laporte’s track and field season.
“Given the circumstances with my injuries and having been off the track for most of the past two months, I was just happy to hang in there,” said the 28-year-old.
“I would have been very close to qualifying with the proper fitness level to run a full race. There is a lot to build on moving forward.”
Laporte has struggled with stress fractures in his shins since he started pursuing his Olympic sprinting dream in the fall of 2017.
See related: Local sprinter needs help to train like an Olympian
“I’m pretty certain it is multiple stress fractures,” said Laporte, who also trained overseas this season.
“It’s almost like walking on broken bones, except instead of walking you are pounding the ground every day at full speed. It makes training next to impossible, which is why I’m consistently running out of gas towards the end of each race. Now that the season is finished, I can take the time to heal and get ready for the indoor season.“
Laporte who has done training with former Olympian Ben Johnson is now getting help from former Canadian sprinter and North Bay native Adam Newton.
“He has been addressing the areas of weakness in my technique and posture,” said Laporte.
“That’s really helping me understand how to improve and become a more efficient sprinter. A huge thank you to all of my local sponsors that helped ease my costs associated with the season. I could not have done it without you.”
However, once Laporte heals up he realizes it will be a real challenge to meet the Olympic standard times and make Canada’s Track and Field team in time for the 2020 Toyko Olympic Summer Games.
“With the 2020 Games having the most difficult qualifying standards yet, athletes must run 10.05 or finish in the top 8 at the Worlds to have a chance at representing Canada,” said Laporte.
“I have a lot of work ahead of me, but the first priority is to get healthy and come back ready to chase that standard time.”
