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Fast enough for Hershey

Sports

Friday, 30 July 2010 12:57

News-Gazette Photo/Rick Pedone

Miguel Soto Jr. holds the plaque he was awarded for qualifying for the Hershey’s North American Games after he won the age 9-10 200 meters state championship in June. His father, Miguel Soto, a former hurdler for the Puerto Rican Olympic team, holds several ribbons his son won.

Miguel Soto Jr. is 200 meters champ

By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

Ten-year-old Miguel Soto Jr. loves baseball. And he loves to run.
But, this summer, his running won’t be from base to base. He’s taking time off from the diamond to pursue his love of sprinting.
Which means one thing — other kids are pursuing him, but not catching him.
Soto advanced through the local Hershey Track meet held in mid-June in Kissimmee, winning the standing long jump and placing second in the 200 meters, which earned him a spot in the state meet in Miami on June 19.
There, he ran the 200 — his best event — in a time of 30.90 seconds, the best in the state in the age 9-10 bracket. That state championship also put Soto in a drawing for a spot in the Hershey North American Games, held in shadow of the famous chocolate factory next Saturday.
The drawing is necessary so the Hershey facility is not overcrowded.
Soto wasn’t fortunate enough to win the lotto, but not because he didn’t try.
“I’m praying to be able to go,” the fourth-grader at Floral Ridge Elementary said recently. “They’re throwing us a party at the Hershey candy factory.”
Soto, Jr. has been running competitively for two years, collecting many ribbons along the way. His coach is close by – like across the dinner table.
His father, Miguel Soto, ran competitively in his prime, advancing to the World Championships in 1996. He competed for Puerto Rico in the 400 meter hurdles in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta that year.
“I just love to run fast,” Soto, Jr. said. “My dad’s told me his stories, and we have medals of pictures of what he did, and that makes me want to go out and try to do that too.”
The trip to Miami was full of mixed emotions.
“A ton of fast kids there, and it was hot,” Soto, Jr. said. “But when we got there, my name wasn’t even on the list.”
That didn’t sit well with his dad.
“They lost a whole heat in the computer,” Soto the elder said. “They looked and found it but not until after I got really upset.”
Soto, Jr. also runs the 100 meters and leaps the long jump, but he enjoys the strategy of the 200 meters the most.
“At first you go like 75 percent, then at the end you go 100 percent and pass people,” he said.
Soto’s father said he wants to push his son, but not burn him out. They usually work out a couple of times a week, but without baseball in the picture until the fall leagues start back up, they’ve picked up the pace a bit. They’ll pick it up even more if he’s selected for the North American meet.
“When I see him running, he just looks very natural,” the elder Soto said. “He’s very competitive, you can see his desire when he runs.”
Hershey’s created its national track and field program over 30 years ago to promote youth physical fitness among children ages nine to 14.