When Anthony Delos Santos brought his son Tony up on stage for the annual KELA/KMNT Diaper Derby, he knew that the soon-to-be 1-year-old had a shot.
“We just know he’s a quick crawler,” Anthony Delos Santos said.
And as soon as he showed Tony that Mom was waiting on the other end of the mat?
“It was over,” Tony’s dad said while laughing.
In both his preliminary heat and the final round, Tony Delos Santos crawled quickly across the finish line, winning the KELA/KMNT Diaper Derby presented by Fuller’s Market Place.
Tony Delos Santos edged out Clayton Peters and Jude Florez, who rounded out the top three with similarly impressive performances in their heats and the final.
Anthony Delos Santos and Shahala Delos Santos, Tony’s mom, knew that their speedster would be in contention after seeing him race around their home.
“We set up in the room twice last night and saw how he would do,” Anthony Delos Santos said. “We’re like, ‘oh, he’s gonna be perfect for this.’”
Tony’s dashes across the stage were only part of the fun across six preliminary heats and the final round.
The third heat of the afternoon was by far the wildest. One baby named Caspian took off and immediately veered to his right, toward the packs of diapers lining the edge of the stage, a process he repeated multiple times before finally getting close to the finish line.
Instead of crossing the finish line, though, he busted a U-turn and proceeded to do multiple laps around the mat.
While Caspian was doing his rounds, another baby stood up and started walking, a disqualifying move that still drew a chorus of cheers and laughs from the audience. Caspian eventually crossed the finish line to win the heat and advance to the finals, where he competed alongside Tony Delos Santos and the other finalists.
“It was awesome,” Shahala Delos Santos said. “It was so much fun.”
Shahala was just beyond the finish line in both rounds as Tony’s “coaxer,” and she used her keys and a toy to try and get Tony to crawl towards her.
Anthony noted that Mom was all Tony needed.
“I honestly don’t even think he cared about those (toys),” he said while smiling.
Tony turns 1 in a couple of weeks, and the memories for Anthony, Shahala and the rest of the family will surely be retold near every birthday in the future.
In the meantime, though, Tony looked ready for a well-deserved nap.
“I think he’s tired now,” Shalala Delos Santos said with a laugh while Tony reached for her.
The Southwest Washington Fair continues through Sunday. Learn more and plan your visit at https://www.southwestwashingtonfair.org.
