It is not common for an aspiring goaltender to transform into a successful track and field athlete, but that is exactly what 22-year-old Nicholas Fung is doing.
The North Bay native just took first place in the long jump, third in the 100m and 4th in shot put at a special olympics regional track and field meet held in Sturgeon Falls over the weekend.
Fung is one of nine local athletes going to the Special Olympics National Summer Games which take place in Nova Scotia in early August as part of Team Ontario.
He will compete in the three sports he excelled at in the regional event.
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“I have been training and training for track, for the longest time I had no clue this was ever going to happen so now that I am actually going away I am going to push myself further and further to make sure I do well in Nova Scotia,” said Fung.
HIs mother Sharon Fung, manages the North Bay North Stars Special hockey team.
She has been proud to see her goalie transform into a top notch track athlete.
“I love watching my kid succeed in sports its is pretty special," she said.
“So track is just something he just sort of picked up in the last couple of years and decided to give it a try in Special Olympics so he qualified for provincials last summer and really was not sure how he was going to do at the provincial level so when I got the notification that he had qualified for nationals I was pretty pumped.”
While Fung will be leaving behind his pads and blocker on this journey East, he does admit that his former billet brother named Jake Smith, provided him with a lot of inspiration. The Battalion goaltender lived at the Fung house all three seasons he played here for the North Bay Battalion.
“It teaches me to push myself even further like he did on the ice and push myself on the track,” said Nick about the former Battalion star goaltender.
Sharon Fung has been involved with all the local Special Olympic athletes heading to Nova Scotia. She says all those participating have been working hard to be ready to hit the national stage.
“It is a serious thing, they take it very seriously, they have been training all year,” she said.
“They do mandatory training per week, keep training logs and dryland training during the winter, certain amounts of sport specific training throughout the summer and then they need to check in with the provincial office so there are a lot of things they need to do to get to this stage so it is very motivating for them. It is very nice to see local athletes doing very well at that level.”
All nine athletes are trying to raise money to help pay for the trip, if you are interested in helping out please click HERE
