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Hurdler Lenton sets new personal best time in California meet

Sets sights on podium finish at upcoming conference championship
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Jorrin Lenton set a new personal best time at a meet in California. (Wilson Wong, SFU/Special to The News)

Maple Ridge track and field standout Jorrin Lenton hit a new personal best in the 400m hurdles while running for Simon Fraser University at a California meet.

Lenton and the SFU track team were at the Beach Invitational at Long Beach, California on April 15 and 16. Lenton ran his best-ever 400m hurdles time of 54.97.

“It felt like a really great race – really smooth and relaxed,” Lenton told The News.

He is thankful to be back racing against tough competition, after COVID-19 interrupted the track career of the former Maple Ridge secondary standout. The 2020 season was completely lost to public health regulations. Then in 2021, SFU athletes were restricted from travel, while the U.S.-based schools in the NCAA continued. The Canadian track team tried to stay sharp winter inter-squad meets.

Now Lenton is back living the life of a scholar-athlete, running races in California, while studying environmental science.

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He believes he can shave significant time off in the coming month, and his goal is to be on the podium at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship, at Central Washington University in Ellensburg on May 13-14. Currently, he is ranked fifth in his event in the GNAC conference.

Then next year, the goal will be to make the NCAA nationals. He is currently ranked 73rd in the nation in his event.

The Simon Fraser High Performance Meet No. 2 is scheduled for April 30 in Burnaby, then he will run at the Portland Twilight event on May 7, before the conference meet.

Jorrin was nationally ranked when he graduated from MRSS. His father Andrew is a well-known Maple Ridge track coach. Andrew and wife Alana Kripps were both B.C. high school track and field champions who went on to compete for SFU.

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Neil Corbett

About the Author: Neil Corbett

I have been a journalist for more than 30 years, the past decade with the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News.
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