The Canadian championships had a definite touch of youth Saturday morning with a total of seven U20 finals being contested in the field. Among the many medalists were pole vaulter Caroline Poirier and high jumper Philip Frank who captured the eighth and ninth medals of the championship for the club.
Reaching new heights in the pole vault was Poirier as she cleared a lifetime best of 3.70 metres on her second attempt. The second attempt clearance allowed Poirier to stay ahead of the University of Toronto Track Club’s Alexzandra Throndson based on countback. Throndson, who entered the competition ranked first, also cleared 3.70 metres, but required a third attempt to do so.
Poirier’s medal is also the first in a decade for a female vaulter from Ottawa, with the last being a bronze from club record holder Patricia Gauthier at the 2008 Olympic Trials.
For Frank, there was no personal best, but his clearance of 1.95 metres certainly went to a count back. However, in Frank’s case it was a situation similar to that of Derek Drouin’s Olympic bronze in 2012 when a series of first attempt clearances led to a three way tie for third.
Another noteworthy field performance came from Wariso Dullo. The U20 javelin thrower unleashed a massive personal best of 57.94m that at one point put him in the gold medal position. However, a sixth round personal best from Quinton McMillan bumbed Dullo off the podium and into fourth place.
On the track, veterans Adam Palamar and Oluwasegun Makinde both advanced to finals in the respective events. Palamar, the Canadian Junior record holder over 1500m, comfortably advanced to tomorrow’s final in a time 3:47.23. Similarly, Makinde advanced to tonight’s 200m final on place courtesy of his windy 21.28 seconds.
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Live Stream: athleticscanada.tv
