13-year old breezes to national event

At the Nassau County Girls’ AA High School track and field championships in May, a tall, thin girl dashed across the finish line in the 100-meter final in 12.9 seconds. The time was the best in the county, garnering Elmont’s Christal Thompson first place and a moment of glory. Few realized that the Spartan sprinter was just 13.

Thompson ran varsity track for Elmont High School as an eighth-grader. As she prepares for her first year of high school, she has also been training for the Hershey’s Track and Field Games in Hershey, Pa., an annual event that brings together the best athletes under age 14 from the U.S. and Canada. She will represent Region 7, which includes the Mid-Atlantic states as well as Quebec in the 200-meter dash on Saturday, Aug. 4.

Running may well be in Thompson’s blood. Her father, Bassett, competed in track while growing up on the island of Jamaica, and her older sister Cherisse, 26, holds the long-jump record at Elmont High School. Bassett is the director of track and field for the Armory Foundation, a nonprofit promoting youth running programs at the Armory in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

While Christal began running at an early age, it wasn’t until recently that she started seeing a potential future in it. “I started taking it seriously about two years ago,” she said. “It just got harder as I got older, and I didn’t want to lose.”

Her commitment to the sport and her progress as a sprinter didn’t go unnoticed. When EHS varsity coach Frances Murphy approached Bassett about allowing his daughter to run as an eighth-grader, he didn’t hesitate. “I knew she could handle it,” he said.

He had instilled in her a love for the sport without pushing her into competition too early, she said. Bassett knows that now is a good time for her to get serious about the sport. He offers his daughter support and tips whenever she asks. “I’m her coach and number one fan,” he said.

“If he wasn’t there,” Christal said, “I don’t think I would be as good as I am now.”

To qualify for the Hershey’s Games, she first competed locally in the 200 meters before taking on fellow New Yorkers. Her time was the best in the region. Since learning she would have a chance at being the fastest 13-year-old girl in the nation, Christal has put in hours of training.