After obliterating his previous personal best javelin throw at the BC Athletics provincial championships jamboree in Nanaimo last weekend, Siôn Griffiths will be representing the province at the Legion National Youth Track and Field Championships in Sainte-Therese, Quebec, next month.
Griffiths threw the javelin 51.07 metres, winning gold at the jamboree, beating his previous personal record by almost five metres and surpassing the Team BC standard by 17 cm.
“He’s so happy because this places him as the top youth 700g javelin thrower in Canada, as recorded by Athletics Canada U18 rankings,” Griffiths’s mother, Bonnie, reported.
Griffiths, who also placed fourth in the hammer throw in Nanaimo, won’t be the only Cowichan Valley Athletic Club Jaguars athlete at Legions. Keiran Marrett-Hitch will be representing the club after placing second in high jump at the jamboree with a height of 1.90m, beating the Legions qualifying mark of 1.85m but narrowly missing the Team BC standard.
Other CVAC athletes who qualified for Legions include Emma Dewit in the youth girls 100m, Jaden Dewit in the midget boys javelin, Madelynn Pollock in the youth girls 80m hurdles and 200m hurdles, and Jessica Castle in the midget girls 1500m steeplechase.
Oliver Castle is unattached but trains with the club and qualified for nationals in the midget boys 1500m steeplechase.
Other athletes who competed for the Jaguars at the jamboree included Matthew Day, Dredyn Fontana and Tony Else. Logan Kits of Duncan competed as unattached, while Reece Fougner-Rukus represented her club, Pacific Athletics, and finished second in the midget girls triple jump.
Pollock, Day, Else, Fontana, and Jessica and Oliver Castle are all going to the B.C. Summer Games in Abbotsford this weekend along with fellow CVACs Campbell Woike, Jaden Dewit and Hugh Rimmer. Valley athletes Fougner-Rukus (Pacific Athletics) and Danae Gendall (Victoria Speed Project) will also be competing in Abbotsford.