sprinter wyatt lee finds comfort at hometown track after sweeping national u20 sprint titles with personal bests
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national champion sprinter wyatt lee (right) leads the way in a workout with high-schoolers nicolas docanto (centre) and ryker mcgregor in the slipstream during a workout at the invista centre in kingston on monday, june 22, 2026. (photo by gare joyce/the kingston whig-standard)
if you happened to pass by the stadium at the invista centre monday evening, you might have mistaken wyatt lee for a student volunteer, coaching middle-school runners.
the 18-year-old kept on his sweats and casually stretched while flying angeles track club coach cole horsman put the kids through their paces.
and when lee took the lead running a few 200s at, for him, a relaxed and controlled pace, a couple of high schoolers fell in behind him.
all of which is to say, you wouldn’t have any idea that you were watching the fastest teen in canada, one primed and poised to become the fastest ever in national track and field history.
monday was lee’s first trip back to his home track after awe-inspiring performance at the canadian under-20 championships in ottawa last weekend.
on friday, lee won the 100 metres in 10.25 seconds, shaving .09 off his personal best. lee’s time matched the u20-best of andre de grasse, the most decorated sprinter in canadian history, and came within two one-hundredths of the national record set last year by tooni ogunyeye of the toronto chapter of the flying angels club.
at 18, lee has the balance of this season and all of 2027 to lower the mark. “i feel like i have a lot left in the tank,” he said.
lee’s 10.25 came despite conditions that were far from ideal — the track was saturated from earlier rain and temperatures were unseasonably cool.
it was a tough act for lee to follow, but his performance in the 200 final on sunday might have out-stripped his 100. lee came from behind in the last 50 metres to edge elijah smeikle of saskatchewan at the line to win the 200 in 20.67. lee’s personal best with a legal wind coming into the meet was 21.02 at last year’s event. while the runners sunday had a marginally stronger than allowable tailwind for an official time (2.2 metres per second, with the legal limit being 2.0), lee’s time suggests he might get closer to the 20-second mark this season than he ever imagined.
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it counts as remarkable stuff considering how new track and field is to the grade 12 student at frontenac secondary school student. he only ran in spikes for the first time in 2024 and broke a long-standing canadian inter-scholastic record in the 100 last year in winning the ontario federation of school athletic associations senior boys event. he readily admitted that, notwithstanding the national title in the 200, he’s still “learning to run the curve.”
“even more than the 100, i think there’s potential there in the 200,” lee said monday evening. “i wasn’t even planning on running (the 200) that much this year.”
lee’s performance in the longer sprint impressed the winner in the senior 200, olympian aaron brown. “this guy is next up,” said browne, also a member of the flying angels track club in toronto. “he’s looking after himself. it’s just nice to see the younger generation coming up.”
lee’s initial reaction after the race wasn’t quite as upbeat. “i hate the 200,” he told a reporter for the athletics canada website sunday.
a day later, lee sounded a more positive note. “now i’ve made the national team in the 200 and i’m running it at the world under-20s in oregon this summer, so i have to step up my game,” he said.
the national under-20 record for the 200 is 20.50 set by almond small of toronto in 2022.
lee suggested he feels fresher at this point in the season than he did last year, when he and his father were regularly commuting during the school year and into the summer to train with the flying angels academy in toronto. this season, he has trained almost entirely in kingston, at the indoor facility at rmc during the winter and on the track at the invista centre under the direction of horsman.
“not having the drive (to toronto) means that i’m not stiff from sitting in the car for hours after a workout,” he said. “it’s great just to be on a track just five minutes from home and to work with a great coach like cole. i think i’m just mentally fresher, too. it’s more relaxed here — all the young runners, they’re my friends and if a new one comes along, he’ll be a friend, too.”
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lee said he hopes to run “double pbs (personal bests) at a meet in windsor in july, at the moment what is the last event on his schedule in advance of the world under-20 meet in oregon. “the windsor track is fast and i don’t feel like i ran perfect races or anything like that in ottawa,” he said.
with his consecutive ofsaa senior 100 titles, lee was almost certainly the most highly recruited kingston track and field athlete ever. after visiting several u.s. colleges, he accepted a scholarship to the north carolina state university this spring and will be heading there in the fall.
these workouts at the invista centre with schoolkids running the curve in his slipstream represent the end of such an unlikely first chapter of his athletic career.
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