All-Delco Boys Track: Penn Wood’s Kanneh improved by leaps, bounds in hurdles

YEADON >> As the 2014 cross country season morphed into the indoor track season, Penn Wood coach Len Jordan was faced with a dilemma.

He had to find an event for Sekou Kanneh, who was a junior at the time.

In Jordan’s mind, Kanneh wasn’t cut out to be a distance runner, a middle distance man or even a sprinter, at least not yet. The speed would come later. At that point, though, Kanneh was in a track no man’s land, a runner without a specific event.

After much thought, Jordan told Kanneh to give the hurdles a try.

Kanneh was not too keen on the idea.

“I told him, ‘I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to fall,’” Kanneh said.

Jordan’s response, according to Kanneh, was typical of the Penn Wood coach.

“You’re tall enough,” Jordan said. “You’ll be fine.”

If this were a Hollywood script a star was born at that point. In the real world, though, things don’t work out that way. Kanneh did not become an overnight sensation. Truth be told, his career as a hurdler almost ended before it began.

Kanneh ran the hurdles one time during the indoor season and then stopped.

“My groin got tight,” Kanneh said. “I had to stop.”

However, he did not give up. When the outdoor season rolled around a healthy Kanneh decided to give the hurdles another try and it didn’t take long to realize that he had found his niche.

Still, it would take another year for Kanneh to develop into one of the top hurdlers in the state, a winner of three medals at the PIAA Championships and the 2016 Daily Times Athlete of the Year in boys track and field.

The progression was gradual and it all started on his walks home. He used the time to get his rhythm, which had to be an odd site to passersby, yet it worked. He developed the timing an athlete needs to be a top-flight hurdler and Kanneh burst onto the scene as a senior.

He was unbeaten in the 300 hurdles in invitational competition until the District One Championships, where he finished third. Kanneh won the 300 hurdles at the Pennsylvania Track Classic, Diamond State Relays, Knights Invitational, Central Bucks West Relays and the Delco Championships. And he had the top time in the event for much of the season.

Kanneh was just as successful in the 110-meter high hurdles. He won the Knights Invitational, the Delco Champs and the District One Class AAA title. And he wasn’t finished. Kanneh continued his success at the PIAA Championships, where he was fourth in the 300 hurdles with a career-best time of 38.64. He took sixth in the 110 hurdles, and teamed with Ndiaga Seck, Dennis Manyeah and Kenny Johnson for fourth in the 4 x 400 relay at the PIAA Championships.

The turning point, though, was winning the district title in the 110 hurdles.

“I didn’t take the 110s seriously,” Kanneh said. “I didn’t think I was that much of a sprinter, at least a short sprinter, and then at districts, things just came together.”

It was a huge confidence booster, not that Kanneh needed it. One thing he does not lack is confidence.

Kanneh boldly told Jordan before the start of the outdoor season that he was going to break 40 seconds in the 300 hurdles. Jordan, of course, brushed it aside as youthful bravado until Kanneh went out in the first meet of the season, the 32nd annual Pennsylvania Track Classic, and won the 300 hurdles in what was then a career-best 39.68 seconds.

“The thing about Sekou is that he was consistent,” Jordan said. “He consistently got better as the season went on.”

“I run to win,” Kanneh said. “That’s my mindset. I don’t get nervous. You’re here for a reason: To win. If you worry about other people and what they’re doing or who they are, you’re not going to perform at your best. My goal is to be the best, get to the finish line first.

Kanneh did that quite often as a senior.

“The thing that changed him was that he did everything we asked him to do,” Jordan said. “We told him he had to run cross country and he ran cross country better as a senior than he ever did before. We told him he had to run the 800 and he did, even though he wasn’t very good at it. But all of those things prepared him for the outdoor season and once the outdoor season came around, his speed kicked in.”

Kanneh’s speed enabled him to do something only Eric Futch has done during Jordan’s tenure at Penn Wood: win three medals at the state meet. And while that was a great accomplishment, he’s not satisfied.

“You can’t settle for anything,” Kanneh said. “You always want more. You always want to get better. You want to be the best you can be.”