Sneath proving age is just a number

When Jason Sneath began sprint training last winter, he had one goal in mind: Gold.

The 45-year-old dermatologist from Brandon told Prairie Speedworks director and coach Bryce Koscielny he not only wanted to compete in the Canadian Masters Track and Field Championships in Laval, Que., but he also sought out a first-place finish.

Fast forward six months, and Sneath accomplished exactly what he set out to do, earning himself a gold medal after posting a time of 12.29 seconds in the 45-49 men’s 100m dash this past weekend.

“It was my goal from the outset, so it was a great feeling to be able to go there and actually do well in it,” said Sneath on Tuesday.

Reaching the top podium wasn’t that easy, though. Before the competition in Laval, Sneath had only participated in one track event since the age of 14, the Athletics Manitoba Spring Open in May.

Racing for the first time since high school in the University of Manitoba-based event challenged Sneath mentally more than he had anticipated.

“I was actually quite nervous about it. I think it’s just a really uncomfortable thing, especially to take up a new thing as an adult when there’s not a lot of other adults there,” he said.

Sneath at one point contemplated bowing out of the competition because he was so uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to disappoint his children, who were watching from the sidelines.

“Whenever my kids are nervous about swimming or something like that, I always tell them they have to go and stand beside the pool until those feelings lessen a bit and then go away,” he said. “My daughter told me to go and do the same thing on the track to get comfortable. So, I went, and the adrenalin was going enough so that I could just kind of go and do the thing. And it was a great experience.”

Sneath ended up crossing the finish line first with a time of 12.34s in a 100m race, which was his first time using a starting block in a competition. He had only previously used one during training with Koscielny.

“I certainly didn’t expect to win, I was very surprised. I remember thinking halfway through the race, just being a little bit shocked that I was in front of this thing, and I was pretty sure at that point that I was going to win the race,” Sneath said. “My kids were so excited, so I had to go straight to them. Your kids always think that you’re, like, the fastest and the fastest dad, so it was very exciting for them to actually see me win that race.”

He said his surprise performance was a boost for his confidence and that he was set up to do well in Quebec if he continued his training.

Sneath worked with Koscielny at Speedworks — a speed, strength, and performance training centre for athletes in Brandon and Neepawa — around once a week, learning the mechanics of sprinting and how to do starts properly. He said getting the co-ordination down on the different phases of sprinting was a focal point of the workouts as well.

“There’s a lot more technique to sprinting than I initially realized. The very first session I ever had with Bryce, I said to him, ‘So now I realize that I’m a fast runner. I’m not actually a sprinter,’” said Sneath. “I just thought, if you’re fast, you’re a sprinter, and that’s not what I think now.”

For the past five years, Sneath has also been working with Tyler Sanjenko, a personal trainer at the FIT Performance Centre, a few days each week.

Sneath said Sanjenko helps him with plenty of power and resistance-based work to help him not only stay in shape but also remain motivated as he gets older.

“Making that routine of getting to the gym and making healthy choices in that way over the last five years has really fundamentally changed aging and my life,” he said. “It made it possible for me to just pick up a sport at this stage and do well at it, and that’s largely thanks to choices from back five years ago.”

This year was Sneath’s first season representing Team Canada in the World Medical Football Championship, a soccer league that gives physicians from different countries the opportunity to compete against one another. He said Nolan Brackenreed, a doctor and member of the club, convinced him to try out for the team.

After going to Toronto for tryouts in October, he qualified for the team as a striker/right wing and began training camp this spring in Calgary, before heading out to Dublin, Ireland, in July to compete.

Over the span of a few weeks, Sneath and Team Canada played nine games in around nine days. Out of 24 teams, they ranked 10th overall.

“It was a lot of soccer, back to back, so it was very intense, but it was an amazing experience,” he said. “It was good competitive soccer, so it was a lot of fun, and it was about as good as Canada’s ever done in that tournament.”

His speed was a factor in the fast-paced games, but the condensed schedule also led to a nagging injury around Sneath’s heel. It became a stressful situation after leaving Ireland, as he wasn’t positive whether or not he would be able to compete in the track championships in Laval.

After some tests and clearance from doctors before his flight, Sneath decided he would still compete. Although, some doubt began to creep up.

“It does weigh on your mind a little bit to know this nagging thing is there, and then in warm-up, it was hurting a fair bit the day of,” he said. “I think there’s so much adrenalin in a short sprint that all of a sudden everything is forgotten until after the race is over, so it really didn’t bother me in the race at all.”

An injury might have been the last thing anyone might have thought of during Sneath’s run, as he sprung ahead almost immediately on his way to an inevitable victory.

“It was one of those moments where, quite early into the race, I was out in front and realized I was going to win this thing,” said Sneath. “I was very surprised, but excited.”

Sneath said his success at the Canadian Masters is an example of setting high goals for himself, regardless of age.

“It’s good to set hard goals like this. It’s good to try new things, even if they’re stressful, and this was definitely that for me. It was a bit intimidating to go new into the sport, but it’s been a lot of fun.”

Looking ahead to next year, Sneath said he would like to play for Team Canada once again at the World Medical Football Championship, this time in Costa Rica. He is also on the lookout to compete at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Korea.

mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com