Since a very early age, all Nick Sinclair wanted to do was run and jump. It was only natural, then, that his parents indulged his love of running and signed him up for his first track team when he was 8 years old. Now, for the second time, he’ll be going to the Track and Field Junior Olympics in Sacramento, Calif., from July 27 through Aug. 1.

Sinclair qualified in the long jump, his main event, during the Region 13 Junior Olympic Trials on July 10 in West Seattle with a first-place-tying jump of 20 feet, 3 inches.

The journey to where he is now started as a kid who wanted to run and got involved in club track when the family lived in Los Angeles. He competed in the Junior Olympics when he was 10, also in the long jump.

“It’s a challenge,” he said of why the event is appealing. “It’s a very technical event. I know I can improve a lot, and it keeps me excited about it.”

His personal best is 21’7”, a long way from the 20’3” he posted at the qualifier. Due to a hamstring injury this spring during the high school track and field season, Sinclair said he’s still battling back and working to get back to 100 percent. However, he hopes to start hitting 21 feet again soon.

“I don’t have a goal for placing, but I’d like to get in the high 21s,” he said. “I think if I do that, then I would place pretty well.” Hitting those lengths remains his main goal, but he also has his sights set on the high school record of 23 feet.

“I would like to break that,” he said. A junior this fall, he will have two more seasons of opportunity to do just that.

Even though the hamstring injury sidelined the end of his season, Sinclair said he was still happy with how things went.

“I felt like I was having a good season. I felt like I was progressing on everything. I was PRing every meet, and then I hurt my hamstring. But I was pretty satisfied with how I competed,” he said.

This summer, when he hasn’t been working out for football, he’s been running and practicing with the Overdrive Track Club, a club team for high schoolers that practices at Inglemoor. Tami Baddely, the jumping coach for the Mercer Island team, is a coach with Overdrive and convinced Sinclair to join.

Success in the long jump comes down to technique, which is why it has been such a big focus for Sinclair and will continue to be until the Junior Olympics, he said.

“We’re working on lengthening my approach and getting more speed on the run,” he said.

Specifically, he said, he is focusing on the last two steps in the run, which, when done correctly, help give jumpers a longer leap.

“The second to last should be a longer stride, and the last should be shorter,” said Sinclair. “We’re working on that and just me relaxing at competitions.”

The Sinclair family moved back to the Island — where Nick’s mom, Heidi, grew up — from Spain when he was going into eighth grade. While in Madrid, Sinclair was able to keep competing in track, when out of sheer luck the family found a club track team close to the family’s new home.

“We got very lucky,” said Heidi. “It turned out they were a very good team, even though they were very low-key.”

With the Spanish team, Sinclair won the national title when was he was 13, running in the 80-meter race, the longest distance that the Spanish programs allowed kids of that age to run.

“The philosophy was different,” said Heidi. “But it was still a lot of fun.”

Since moving back, Sinclair has stayed focused on running, even on the football field, where he plays wide receiver.

“I like the camaraderie of the team, and I just love playing sports,” he said.

After the Junior Olympics and after football, Sinclair said he hopes to do indoor track in the winter, working with a trainer to start preparing for the outdoor season.

“It helps you get the base for the season,” he said. It could also help him achieve his other goal, competing at the college level, preferably in Division I.

“I would like to do track at the college level, and maybe football at that level too, but that’s pretty hard now a days,” he said. “I just want to keep getting batter. I’m just happy to be out there competing.”

Sinclair will certainly have the chance to compete against some the best at the Junior Olympics. The top three in each event qualify from every region (there are 15 in the U.S.) and face off at the Olympics. While jumping competitions are getting tougher in the Northwest, Heidi said qualifications are even tougher out of places like Southern California or Florida.

Last weekend the family headed to Eugene for the Track City Track Classic in Oregon, the last Overdrive team event before the Junior Olympics.

For more information on the Junior Olympics visit the USATF Web site.