With the way things went for Moose Jaw throws specialist Ademide Adewumi at the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association provincial track and field championship this past spring, it seemed only a matter of time before she made waves on the national scene.
As it turns out, that time is now.
The Cornerstone Christian School competitor set a provincial record and won a bronze medal in the Under-16 girls shot put at the Canadian Legion Track and Field Youth Nationals in Sherbrooke, Que. on Saturday afternoon, one day after finishing fourth overall in the discus.
The showing is a product of wholesale improvement for Adewumi even in the short time since high school provincials in June.
Back then, she put together a 12.45-metre effort on her way to utterly dominating the competition and setting a provincial high school record in the process.
Now she has a Sask Athletics provincial mark in her ledger, after throwing 13.12 metres in Sherbrooke.
That same effort at high school provincials would have won every age group below senior, and left her only two centimetres behind the gold medalist in that age group.
At the Sask Athletics level, Adewumi’s new shot put record surpasses the U16 mark set by one of the top throwers in Saskatchewan history, none other than Canadian Olympic veteran Taryn Suttie, who set the record back in 2005. Adewumi is also within a metre of the U18 record of 13.97 metres held by Nicole Kramchynsky.
As for the national U16 record, that would have been something special indeed -- the mark currently stands at 16.45 metres and is held by two-time national champion Trinity Tutti, the 34th-ranked discus thrower on the planet.
Adewumi finished 33 centimetres behind silver medalist Jenna Tunks of Ontario, with B.C.’s Talia Phangura taking top spot with a 14.84-metre effort.
In the discus on Friday, Adewumi put together a throw of 28.39 metres, finishing just under three metres back of Ontario’s Emma Negri for third. Phangura was second with a 33.50 metre effort, Tunks won gold with a throw of 43.70 meters.
