The Last Human Athlete by Mehr Chandhok
2025 finalist: Grades 7 to 9 category
The Last Human Athlete by Mehr Chandhok is a finalist in the 2025 First Page Student writing challenge in the Grades 7 to 9 category.
Students across Canada wrote the first page of a novel set 150 years in the future, imagining how a current-day trend or issue has played out. About 1,000 students submitted their stories.
The shortlist was selected by a team of expert CBC readers. The winners will be selected by YA writer S.K. Ali and be announced on June 12.
Chandhok, 14, a student at Grandview Heights School in Edmonton, writes about AI taking over the sprinting world.
Millions roared as the Biomech sprinter crossed the finish line, its polished titanium joints flexing with unbelievable precision. The scoreboard flickered: 8.01 seconds, a new world record. The stadium announcer barely sounded excited. Records in this sport's world are crushed each week now.
Lucas Reed stood in the locker room, staring at himself in the illuminated mirror. His hands trembled, not from nerves, but from the knowledge that he was about to become extinct. He tightened the straps on his outdated, sweat-stained running shoes with actual laces, not the neural advanced auto-fit technology used by the "athletes" outside.
His coach, a silver-haired man named Raines paced behind him.
"You know, they don't want you here," Raines said.
Lucas exhaled. "Yeah, that's kind of the point."
Raines stopped, staring dead at Lucas. "If you lose, you'll prove them right. If you win, you'll embarrass them. Either way, they'll make sure you never run again."
Lucas looked up, meeting his coach's gaze. "Then I guess I better win."
The tunnel to the track stretched out before him, a glowing pathway of synthetic fibre engineered to optimize AI footwork. Lucas stepped onto it, feeling the deep burn in his calves, the kind of pain no machine could replicate.
The starting line was crowded with competitors, Biomech runners with carbon fibre tendons and one fully autonomous AI sprinter. Lucas was the only one with a beating heart.
The stadium's roars had fallen silent as the starting light began pulsing: RED… YELLOW… GREEN!
Lucas exploded forward, the air splitting around him. His feet pounded the track, each step raw, imperfect, human. The Biomechs surged ahead with their unmatchable precision, but Lucas had something they didn't: years of devastating pain.
He pushed harder. The finish line loomed. His vision blurred. Every muscle in his body screamed. At the final second, he lunged forward, his body collapsing past the finish line.
Chaos erupted as the scoreboard flickered: 7.99 seconds.
For the first time in decades, a natural human had outrun the machines.
Lucas gasped for air as officials rushed toward him, their expressions far from congratulatory. The judge, a cold-eyed woman in a matte black suit, approached.
"You weren't supposed to win," she scolded.
The stadium lights dimmed as security rushed onto the track. Lucas realized too late, he hadn't just beaten them.
He had threatened them.
They weren't going to let that stand.
About The First Page student writing challenge
CBC Books asked students to give us a glimpse of the great Canadian novel of the year 2175. They wrote the first page of a book set 150 years in the future, with the protagonist facing an issue that's topical today and set the scene for how it's all playing out in a century and a half.
Two winning entries — one from the Grades 7 to 9 category and one from the Grades 10 to 12 category — will be chosen by bestselling YA author S.K. Ali.
Her books include the YA novels Saints and Misfits, Love from A to Z and Love from Mecca to Medina. She has also ventured into children's books with her picture book The Proudest Blue and the middle-grade anthology she co-edited, Once Upon an Eid which won the Middle East Book Honor Award in 2020.
Her latest novel explores a different genre to everything she has done before — dystopian science fiction. In Fledgling: The Keeper's Records of Revolution, the first of a YA duology, two Earths are on the brink of self-destruction.
Winners will receive...
- A one-year subscription to OwlCrate, which sends fresh boxes of books to young readers across Canada on a monthly basis.
- 50 free YA books for their school library
You can read the complete rules and regulations here.
Last year's winners were Toronto's Anya Thadani in the Grades 7 to 9 category for Fixed and Kleefeld, Man's Hayley Peters in the Grades 10 to 12 for Forbidden Realities.
The winner will be announced on CBC Books on June 12, 2025.
