After a disappointing loss at the Western Canada Age Group Wrestling Championships in January, Talon Hird doubled down on his determination to win a fourth straight provincial championship.
It paid off when Hird reached the final match at the provincial meet in Langley on Tuesday. Not only was the Grade 11 athlete from Cowichan Secondary on the verge of his fourth B.C. high school title, but his opponent was Salmon Arm’s Elijah Lazar, the same wrestler who had dealt him that pivotal defeat in January.
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In a match that lasted two minutes and 30 seconds, Hird took an eight-point lead over Lazar before clinching the 54kg boys title with a pin. Cowichan Valley Wrestling Club head coach Nick Zuback called it an “almost flawless victory.”
The feeling of winning a fourth consecutive provincial title was “phenomenal,” Hird said.
“It was definitely harder than last year,” he acknowledged. “Every year feels better as the number gets higher. It feels earned because I had to go through adversity with losing and being unsure.”
Since January, not a day has gone by that Hird hadn’t thought about his loss to Lazar at the age group meet in Abbotsford, Zuback said.
“I definitely stepped it up a bit in practice,” Hird commented. “I knew I had to go 100 per cent for the rest of the season to make sure I clinched the title.”
That focus made Hird’s win feel even better.
“When you beat someone that’s beaten you previously, there’s nothing sweeter than that,” Zuback said. “Especially in the final of a provincial championship.”
Regardless of who he beat in the final, Hird knows the victory was the result of another year of hard work.
“It’s always good to have the right payoff,” he said. “Every year, it’s a long season and for it all to pay off, it’s a wonderful feeling.”
Hird now has an opportunity to become the first CVWC athlete to win five straight provincial titles, something he has made no secret of wanting to achieve.
“It’s been his goal since his first year,” Zuback said. “He’s always idolized Nolan Mitchell, who won four provincial titles with our club, and how he’s in the same group as him.
“The drive for five is alive.”
Winning a fifth title will take “more hard work and determination,” Hird said, a continuation of the effort he has put in for the last four years.
“I’ll try to continue the high pace I’ve tried to keep up through my high school career,” he said. “And cap it off with another win.”