BC High Schools Track and Field Provincial Championships

Four Brentwood Junior Boys recently qualified for and participated in the BC High Schools Track and Field Championships at Rotary Bowl in Nanaimo. This was a three day meet starting Thursday June 2nd. On Thursday, after the opening ceremonies, Luke H was first up in Junior Boys Long Jump. In his first jump he aggravated an old injury and was unable to post any further jumps. Later on Siôn G, Luke H, Casper P & Campbell W raced the 4x100 relay heats where they hoped to qualify for finals the next day. Unfortunately, the second baton exchange occurred outside the exchange area and the team were disqualified and we headed back down Island to recoup. On Friday, after another long drive up, Siôn was first in action in Junior Boys Hammer. With 19 competitors in the preliminaries, after 3 throws each, the top 3 were allowed 3 additional throws. Siôn’s best throw was a PB of 51.87m beating the old meet record, but not quite enough to surpass the first place throw of 52.38m so he took the silver medal.  Having failed to make the 4x100 relay finals, the team’s next chance at glory was the 4x400 heats. 400m is a tough race so this was always going to be hard, particularly with Luke’s aggravated injury and Campbell also suffering some stiffness in his hip. The team showed true grit in this race and, although they failed to make the final, they ran a team best time and know that, if fully fit, they can be contenders in the future.  With the rest of the team not having events on Saturday, Siôn alone travelled up island to compete in Javelin. On a difficult, gusty tailwind day for javelin throwers, 25 boys competed. The field were split into two flights to make it manageable and after both groups had thrown 3 throws each, the top 8 progressed to have 3 additional throws. Siôn was in pole position heading into the final round when the second place athlete threw 51.95m to move ahead. Siôn threw an amazing pressure throw but just came up short at 51.91 and had to settle for the silver medal by 4cm. Final tally for Brentwood was two Provincial Silver medals. Brentwood can be proud of their small track contingent who train and compete in addition to their main sport commitment at Brentwood. The boys are hoping that next year we can entice more Brentwood students to participate in competitive Track and Field activities and fulfill the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger). Dewi Griffiths