Rare triple gold for North Surrey sprinter at B.C. school meet
Published 2:21 pm Monday, June 8, 2026
A rare triple-gold was recorded by North Surrey Secondary’s Shaunrie Whynter at the BC School Sports provincial track meet last week.
The Grade 11 student-athlete raced to the gold medal in senior boys 200M with a time of 21.81, after placing first in both the 100M and 400M events at McLeod Athletic Park in Langley.
Shaunrie’s triple win in three sprints has coaches searching records to see if it’s ever happened before at the provincial meet.
“I don’t think it’s been done before, it’s amazing,” said Adam Denson, athletic director at North Surrey.
“Everyone here is really excited, and I’m trying to find a way to put it into perspective for everyone of how big this actually is, what he’s doing, especially because he’s only in Grade 11,” Denson added. “He’s gonna be getting a lot of opportunities opening up now, with all the success.”
North Surrey teammate Talia Phangura earned gold in senior girls shot with a throw of 14.21 metres, breaking a 55-year-old record at the B.C. school meet.
In team competition, Surrey’s Pacific Academy Breakers boys took home the 2A championship banner.
Whynter and Phangura are both headed to Ottawa next week for the Canadian junior nationals with hopes of qualifying for the U20 Worlds in Oregon this summer.
Born in Jamaica, Shaunrie moved to Canada with his family in 2019.
“He’s really just taken on track and field at this higher level in the last year,” Denson noted. “He’s working with a coach Bolade Ajomale, former Olympian, who started Spartans Academy here.”
Shaunrie was known as a fast player on the soccer pitch before he got into track.
Monday, he was feeling good about himself after three remarkable runs in Langley.
“It’s a lot to get used to,” he told the Now-Leader. “I’ve never had, like, this many people come up to me wanting to be in pictures and everything, people on Instagram telling me I did a good job, coaches asking me if I looked into football and other things. It’s just different, something I haven’t experienced before.”
He’ll focus on track for the foreseeable future.
“I wanna go to university and then hopefully after that go pro,” he added.
Ajomale sees potential in Shaunrie, who’s been training at Bear Creek Stadium with the track at North Surrey being renovated.
“I know there are not many athletes who are able to do that (triple gold in sprint events), especially after only doing the sport for one year,” said Ajomale, a bronze-medalist for Canada at the 2016 Olympics in the 4x100M relay.
“I have probably seen one like it some time ago, maybe in high school, but nothing recently like this, no,” he added.
Denson says Phangura three personal bests in shot and hammer in Langley, winning gold in both events.
“Her summer is pretty busy going forward,” he said. “She’s got those two meets and then she’ll be headed to the University of Indiana in August right after the U20s in Oregon. She committed there last fall.”