Dawson City runner Jack Amos knocked more than two seconds off his personal best time to win the 3,000-metre event in the Under-18 class at the B.C. club championships a week ago.

The 17-year-old representative of Athletics Yukon finished in a time of eight minutes, 50 seconds and 35 one hundredths of a second, or more than seven seconds ahead of second-place Antoine Minfray of B.C.

Amos finished second in the 1,500-metre event with a time of 4:03.21, just under two seconds back of the 4:01.39 posted by B.C.’s Fraser Van Allen.

Amos explained in an interview Thursday from his home in Dawson he and Minfray had a plan to try and run the 3,000 at a national team standard of 8:42 but it just was not their day.

Minfray, who has a personal best of 8:46, went out fast, faster than Amos wanted to match early in the race. The race leader eventually paid the price.

“I kicked at a K to go and going into the bell lap was when I caught him,” Amos said.

He said he ran the first 2,000 metres in a time of 6:01 but finished the last 1,000 in 2:49.

“I ended up closing pretty fast.”

It’s been a long season. Working nights the week before back stage at Diamond Tooth Gerties, and with the travel down to Coquitlam he wasn’t in the best shape for the club championships, he said.

Nonetheless, finishing first in the province “was pretty fun, it was pretty cool.”

Amos said he had a bad start in the 1,500, and got boxed in, requiring a little contact to break out.

When he did kick, the third-, fourth- and fifth-place runners didn’t go with him but it was close at the end, though not like a photo finish, he said. Nonetheless, just seven-tenths of a second separated Amos, third place and fourth place.

Amos was coming off a bronze medal in the U-20, 5,000-metre at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in Ottawa earlier this month.

He’s not sure if he’ll attend the 2018 Canadian Legion Youth Track and Field Championships in Brandon, Man., next month.

Amos said he will return to the cross country running circuit in September when he goes back to high school in Victoria.