Who is the fastest kid in San Francisco? It’s an easy question without an easy answer, except one time per year, at the All-City Finals meet. Before the Finals, it’s a matter of sifting the results, polling the coaches, and watching speedy kids.

I saw some of the fastest high school kids in the city at the Galileo-Lowell-Lincoln-Washington meet at the School of the Arts (formerly McAteer) track on May 4. The track is nestled in a wind-shielded swale behind Diamond Heights. If you’ve haven’t been to a track meet since the days when you were freaking about trigonometry, it’s fun, free entertainment and you get to see some of the best young athletes around.

A high school track coach is part circus ringmaster, part Sigmund Freud, part wedding coordinator. At the May 4 meet, the four head coaches were barking orders to their athletes about when to warm up, reminding them in which events they were participating, shouting encouragement, and maintaining sharp discipline – each coach keeping tabs on 30 to 50 athletes.

Lazare Gubeladze, of Abraham Lincoln High School, was a streak of lightning in the 100-meter dash, posting a time of 10.9 seconds, the fastest this year in San Francisco. Gubeladze has this year’s third-fastest time in the 400-meter, and the fourth-fastest in the 200. He, Steven Burks, Remfel Ganal, and Jay’von Fields comprise the fastest 4 x 100-meter relay in town.

Asked if he is the fastest kid in San Francisco, Gubeladze modestly states, “As of right now.” His partners on the Lincoln relay team (all of whom, including Gubeladze, play other sports as well) agree that he is the fastest.

Gubeladze takes his track seriously. On the sidelines before other heats of the 100-meter dash, he knelt into position in imaginary starting blocks, then at the starter’s gun, blasted up into a sprint, shooting forward about a dozen steps. No one else practiced in this manner.

Two of the fastest girls in San Francisco are Serina Felicity of Lincoln and Melanie Speech of Lowell High School. Felicity and Speech each compete in multiple events. Speech covers the playing field, competing in the 100 and 200 dash, the relay, the long jump, and shot put. When asked which event is her favorite, she replies, “Everything.”

Speech says that she is looking forward to the summer track season, when she can compete in the pentathlon. She’s psyched to apply to the University of Oregon and Stanford. She notes that before the city finals, “It’s not about place that matters, it’s about PBs [personal bests].”

Indeed, right now, while Gubeladze has a strong claim to the title of the fastest boy in San Francisco, it is much more difficult to single out the fastest girl. Kaylyn Perkins of Thurgood Marshall High School has the fastest posted time in the 100-meter dash at 12.5 seconds, with Lisha Yao of Galileo Academy at 12.6, Serina Felicity at 12.65, and Melanie Speech at 12.7. Adding to the nuance of determining the best athletes, high school track times are notoriously inaccurate. The proof is in the head-to-head meets.

It is a bit odd, in the USA, a country that constantly mythologizes the individual, that we get all crazed about team sports. The individual sports of golf and tennis (let’s also throw in car racing, and boxing) have strong followings, and the fake individual “sport” of professional wrestling is wildly popular. But it’s as if Americans have trouble dealing with the purest form of individualism in sports: track and field.

Next track season, consider hunting down a local meet, where you will see humble, wonderful athletes working hard and encouraging each other, and witness moments like the 400-meter dash qualifying heat at the May 4 meet in which a runner felt a twinge in his thigh and – according to his coach’s established instructions – let up.

The runner decided to jog around the track at the pace of a fat, middle-aged man with corns and blisters on his feet, as teammates and fans began to notice his odd pace. As he hit the home stretch, smiling, he extended both arms and waved to the fans as if in a victory lap at an Olympic stadium, and the laughter blossomed from fans in the stands and fellow athletes on the field, who, in a sudden upsurge, ran towards him.

He then stopped and started jogging backwards, the wrong way, which brought out renewed howls of laughter. His unsmiling, unamused coach intercepted him, took him by the elbow, muttered sharp words, and escorted him off the track.

UPDATE: The May 28 All-City Finals at Kezar Stadium has officially determined the fastest kids in San Francisco, at least for this season.

Lazare Gubeladze can now lay claim as the fastest boy in San Francisco by winning the 100-meter dash in 10.89 seconds. He also won the 200 in 22.19.

Melanie Speech is now the fastest girl, winning the 100-meter dash in 12.21 seconds. She, too, won the 200, in 25.88. Speech also took the girl’s long jump title with a leap of 18 feet, 3.25 inches.

Steve Hermanos is the author of O, Gigantic Victory! Baseball Poems: The 2010 Championship Season. He is a realtor at 2200 Union Street. E-mail: [email protected]