By Mitch Abramson
Anthony Soares wasn’t satisfied with being the king of Queens, so he conquered the city to become the King of New York. The junior high-jumper from Martin Van Buren, along with teammate Raymond Pau, who won the triple jump in 39 feet 1/2 inch, were the only Queens’ athletes to win events in the boys’ PSAL City Outdoor Track and Field Championships at St. John’s on Saturday.
Soares insisted he was uninspired when he cleared six-feet, two-inches to win the Queens Borough Championships in early May. His buddy and best jumper in the city, James Blocker, a junior from August Martin, missed the event because of a knee injury, and Soares, bored with the competition, coasted to an easy win.
Blocker was absent Saturday too, but that didn’t mean Soares was a shoe in to win. Stuyvesant’s Harris Newman, who defeated Soares by a miss after they cleared six-feet, two-inches in the Indoor City Championships, pushed Soares to the brink of elimination again.
Soares was confident he could elevate higher then Newman, ranked fourth in the city, but with two misses at six-feet, three-inches, Soares needed to clear the height in his final attempt to stay alive. With the competition riding on a single jump, Soares discovered the motivation he needed.
“The adrenaline started rushing straight to my head,” he said. “I felt nervous, but I didn’t put in all this time in practice not to go to states. I didn’t want the same thing to happen that took place in the indoor championships.”
The pokerfaced Soares, ranked No.2 in the event, cleared six-feet, three-inches and topped off at six-feet, five-inches to capture his first ever city championship. He almost let the championship slip away, but literally, he rose to the occasion.
“Winning this means more then winning the Queens Borough championships,” said the resident of Cambria Heights. “If you go to another state, you can’t say: ‘I’m the best in Queens.’ I’d rather say I was the best in New York. The borough’s was practice for the city’s. Is that wrong to say?”
The win was particularly special because Soares was born with one leg shorter than the other, the product of a car accident involving his mother when she was pregnant. Surgeries and a cast couldn’t straighten out his left leg. Soares has had to change the way he jumps, from springing off his left leg, which remains weak, to exploding off the right. “I try to show people that I can be as good as them or better by just jumping off one leg,” he said.
His coach, Martin Laskin, knew Soares was unique when he saw him running cross-country his sophomore year. Soares couldn’t run much but he had the heart of a lion.
“What impressed me about him was that here he is, and he’s not a cross-country runner with his [smaller] leg, so I said: ‘Why is this kid putting himself through these tough practices,’” said Laskin. “I liked the kid; I said to him: ‘you can’t run cross-country but you have a lot of heart. When I saw he had hops I got him interested in the long-jump.”
Laskin, who appears to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time at meets, sat out of view during the high jump finals. When Laskin sensed that Soares was faltering a little after he missed his second attempt at six-feet, three-inches, he sprang from his seat and yelled: “How’s it going to look if you’re going to Nationals and this kid beats you? Now what are you going to do?”
Soares, as is his fashion when threatened, replied by winning the event he coveted all season. Next year, with rivals Newman and Carldon Murray of DeWitt Clinton graduating, Soares may have to invent opponents to push him.
“I hope James [Blocker] comes back from his knee,” he said. “I need someone to challenge me.”
Reach Mitch Abramson by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300 Ext. 130.
