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If Kendra Clarke did nothing else in her athletic career, running a personal best in front of a hometown crowd to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics would already be a pretty awesome crowning achievement.

But she is just getting started.

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Literally.

“I didn’t even join track and field until I was 16,” said the 19-year-old, Edmonton-born 400-metre runner. “In a way, I’m still kind of new to the sport.”

Kind of new?

If she was a Ferrari — not a far-fetched analogy given her inherent need for speed — she would still have that new car smell.

Seriously, who makes the Olympics three years after joining a track club?

Photo by Ian Kucerak / Edmonton Journal

“I never really even thought of going to a track club until (coach) Dwight Francis found me at a high school track meet when I was in Grade 10,” she said. “I was doing the 400 metres and high jump at the time. He said I was capable of making an Olympic team, and I believed him.

“In one year of training, I made my first team, which was World Youth Championships. The next year was World Junior Championships, then the Pan Am Games and now I’m here.