Derek Pye has done it again...

Derek has just returned from attending USATF Masters 2012 Indoor Championships at University of Indiana in B-Town, IN (Bloomington, IN) with yet another 1st place finish!   Moving into his 3rd season with USATF Masters Track n' field Derek decided to compete in the 60m Dash, 60m High Hurdles, and High Jump.  Mind you, Derek has never competed in the 60m Dash nor the High Jump, but you wouldn't know it if you saw him out on the track! 

  With not much preparation during the off season Derek took the track Lane 3, Heat 3 at 9:50 AM & wow'd the audience with his amazing 1st place finish with a time of 7.27. By 11:01 AM he was ready to take on a 8-lane final with the well respected Don Drummond flanked on his right and the mighty speed of Eric Prince on his left. They took their mark, the announcer calmly said, "Set", and before you knew it the gun went off and they came flying out of the blocks FAST!


 It was a tight race, but by 40m Derek started to pull away and crossed the line with a time of 7.25 taking a 1st place finish to start his day off right! Drummund coming in 2nd with a time of 7.43 and Prince in 3rd clocking in at 7.50. Unfortunately, soon after the race had finished, Derek, said he started to feel a twinge in his left leg and wondered if he should have even dabbled with the 60m race knowing the race he came for was his 60m High Hurdles race set for later that afternoon.  It was so upsetting that this man couldn't even truly enjoy the remarkable performance he just completed out on the middle of the track. Derek immediately went to the training table and got his leg wrapped with ice and had time to evaluate if he should risk further injury knowing the outdoor season is closely approaching.  He took a few starts on the practice track and knew there would be no way to push off the blocks without dealing with a large amount excruciating pain.  With Derek's determination, fighter mentally, and will he was still suiting up and ready to take the track at 5:20 PM for the Final in hopes that he could just finish the race.  Here we go....Derek took his mark, Lane 4, set, and the gun went off...

Derek, known for his QUICK starts, came out of the blocks near to last with an uneasiness about his ability in completing this race. He flew HIGH above the 1st hurdle knowing there was no way that he even wanted to come close to possibly hitting that hurdle with his injured leg....can't blame the man!  Knowing that he was able to make it over the hurdle you can see the mind set quickly had changed and he started to gain speed and began to chase them down, one by one, he started moving towards the front.  Mind you there are only 5 hurdvles in this race....a matter of seconds!  He crossed the line with a 2nd place finish!  What an amazing display of a true champions will and determination!  Derek was so relieved to finish the race and felt like he didn't further the injury.  He didn't complete the task that he set out to achieve (this being this his last indoor race for this age group) to obtain a new record, but what he doesn't realize is that this performance on the track surpassed any record that could have been obtained...What a champion! Congratulations Derek!  What a way to finish the day!

Last day of competion in Bloomington, IN....Derek is ready to hit mat...say what? Derek checked in at the High Jump  He was set on trying something new. Wanting to maintain the respect of the other high jump athlete's that have trained for this event and this being their event, Derek, decided to just jump twice and stop.  Derek came home with a 2nd place High Jump medal....can you believe it!  Keeping it real, technique was definitely not there, but boy oh boy that man got some hops!  He accomplished his goal and brought home another beautiful medal to show for it.

Check out this link to take a look back on Derek's career in Master's Track and Field:  http://mastersrankings.com/indresults.php?pseason=Indoor&cyear=2012&idno=01232702196836104422DEREKPYE
Stay tuned...Indoor season is on it's way!








Check out Derek's current rankings:
http://www.mastersrankings.com/rankings.php?pevent=60%20METER%20DASH&sort=Asc&sex=Men&pseason=Indoor&cyear=2012&cyear=2012&pseason=Indoor