Speed To Burn
Kristjan Hunter sets his sights towards nationals
Vuthana Suon, STAFF
Photo by David Lipnowski
Running comes easily to cross-country athlete Kristjan Hunter. And he hopes to breeze past the competition when he competes at the Canadian cross-country championships in Vancouver on December 3.
Hunter has high expectations for himself, especially after his success a few weeks ago at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championships. After placing fourth at the CIS cross-country championships in Halifax and being named a first-team All-Canadian, Hunter is poised for success at Nationals.
“I’ve gone to the Nationals in the past as a junior, and I’m anxious to see how I’ll do now that I’m competing as a senior,” said Hunter.
In what may be one of the highlights of an already flourishing athletic career, Hunter was chosen to run for the Canadian national team at the recent 2005 World Student University Games in Turkey last August. The competition was fierce, but Hunter rose to the challenge.
“Representing Canada was huge,” said Hunter. “It is incomparable to anything else, because you’re not just running for yourself or for your school, but for your country.”
“In Turkey, I placed eighth in the steeplechase, which I was happy with, and ended up running a personal best in the 5000 .”
After graduating from College Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Hunter looked for opportunities south of the border and chose to attend Iowa State University, much to the chagrin of the Bison cross-country coaching staff.
After a year, though, Hunter was back in Manitoba and in a Bison uniform. He said dealing with both the track and field and cross-country programs in Iowa, became overbearing and he didn’t feel his needs were being met.
“At the start, during cross-country season, things were going alright, but once track season began, they started to have a few more expectations of me and I ended up spraining my ankle,” said Hunter.
“I was supposed to take some time off, but they kept pressuring me to start racing again and to lead tryouts,” said Hunter. “In the end, I felt that they didn’t give me the proper chance to heal and compete.”
A multi-sport athlete, Hunter also runs the 1500m and 3000m events for the Bison indoor track and field team, which gets underway Nov. 26 at Max Bell Centre with an inter-squad meet.
Hunter participated in several sports growing up, but his cross-country success is all the more astounding because he didn’t start running seriously until high school, on his mom’s advice.
“I ran a little bit in junior high, so in high school, when my mom found that there was a good running coach, she suggested I try running competitively,” said Hunter. “I found that I was good at it.”
Hunter knows his speed may be fleeting, but he can at least parlay his wealth of experience and insight to a future career in sports.
“I’m going to take the bachelor of exercise sport and science, then get my education degree,” said Hunter. “My dream is to ultimately be a coach.”
With his success, Hunter knows it’s part of his job to take on a responsible leadership role within the team.
“I may not necessarily say as much as I could, but I try an awful lot to lead by example,” said Hunter.
Bison cross-country coach Claude Berube said Hunter has become more receptive to the idea of being a leader.
“He has taken a leadership role on the field,” said Berube. “He is an interesting character; he may not lead by the classic example of leadership, but he is certainly a team guy and very much thinks team first before his individual results.”
