MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- Heading into the junior girls shot put competition at the South Central District Track and Field championship on Wednesday, Cornerstone Christian School competitor Ademide Adewumi wasn’t feeling her best.
That could have made for tough times heading into the event, especially knowing what was on the line, as only the top two finishers would advance to the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association provincial championship.
So how did Adewumi do?
One could say fairly well, as she broke the 21-year-old district record on her very first throw and eventually went on to win the event by more than two metres over her nearest competitor.
Of course, none of this is a surprise in any way. Ademide is the reigning Canadian Legion track and field bronze medalist in the discipline and is expected to win gold at provincials in two weeks in Saskatoon.
But there’s always the matter of getting things done, and Adewumi was able to do that in style on Wednesday morning.
“It was all because of all the practice I’ve done, even though I wasn’t feeling really good today I pushed through it and did what I’ve been training to do,” Adewumi said shortly after confirming her win and entry into the SHSAA meet. “Provincials has always been the goal this season so it’s good to be throwing well going into that.”
All in all, it was an incredible run of competition for South Central athletes, as a total of 10 records fell on the day, undoubtedly helped by the beautiful sunny spring weather.
Given how she had thrown all season, Adewumi was considered a virtual lock to set the record -- her seed distance alone was better than the old mark -- and her best effort of 11.29 metres would shatter the record of 10.62 metres set by Rouleau’s Christina Beck in 2003.
The district mark wasn’t the only one Adewumi was chasing, either. She’s had her sights set on the provincial high school record of 12.13 metres all season and will have one more meet to try and take it down.
“It’s a big one, but I’ve been training for it and hopefully it can happen,” Adewumi said. “It’s just practice and making sure you have the technique down, because I don’t have the technique down perfect, so I just have to keep at it.”
The shot put record wasn’t the only record broken by Adewumi, either, as she’d also take down Beck’s junior girls discus mark, also set in 2003. Adewumi cleared 35.29 metres, just getting past the old mark of 35.09 metres.
Anyone who saw the results of the city track and field championship a week earlier will have a pretty good idea of some of the other record-setters on Wednesday.
Vanier’s Zayden Anderson raised a few eyebrows with his showing in the 100 metres, as he became the first junior boys competitor in district history to go sub-11 seconds when he crossed the line in 10.88, Peacock’s Ryan Botterill had set the record of 11 seconds flat back in 2016.
Anderson also performed as expected in the 100m hurdles, winning in 13.88 to break the mark of 14.30 set by M. Darroch in 1995.
Interestingly enough, it was a record set last year in the 100m hurdles by Anderson that was broken by Central’s Reid Weiss, as he finished in 14.37 to edge Anderson’s 14.42 from last spring.
It was also another couple of good days for Peacock’s Nikolina Kapovic and by extension Central’s Katie Rogers. The duo did all they could to chase down both the senior girls 1,500 metre and 3,000 metre records, and both would fall to Kapovic, as they did a week earlier.
Kapovic ran a 4:49.78 in the 1,500 metres to once again break one of the oldest records on the books, a 4:51.10 set by Central’s Deb Noble back in 1975. Rogers was right on record pace, too, but just missed it, crossing in 4:51.81.
The 3,000 metres was run Tuesday evening and saw Kapovic finish in 10:22.50, breaking the mark of 10:35.50 set by Morse’s Trisha Doyle back in 2004. Rogers also broke the old mark, finishing in 10:26.25.
A trio of tetrathlon records also fell.
Vanier’s Ben Kiefer recorded 2,454 points to break schoolmate Joseph Taban’s mark of 2,419 set in 2017, while Mossbank’s Chase Petersen had 2,360 points to break the record of 2,027 set by Mossbank’s Ryder Peterson in 2022 and Charlize Hillmer racked up 1,892 points in the junior girls competition to edge the mark of 1,878 set by Lafleche’s Jerzey Watteyne in 2022.
The top competitors from each competition now advance to SHSAA provincials during the June 7-8 weekend in Saskatoon.
