Sardis Falcon Rowan Hamilton overwhelmed his foes in the senior men’s hammer throw, grabbing gold at last week’s B.C. High School Track and Field Championships in Langley.
The Grade 12 student grabbed the six kilogram hammer and sent it soaring 63.08 metres through the air.
No one else came close.
Igam Bhandal out of Vancouver’s Sir Winston Churchill secondary was second, far behind Hamilton at 48.41m. A pair of Highroad Academy athletes, Nathaniel Gidon and Jasjeet Chawla, finished 14th and 23rd in the final.
Hamilton secured a second gold medal in the 1.75kg discus, though this competition was much tighter.
Hamilton’s first place mark of 44.91m was just a little better than the second place mark of 44.15 put up by Point Grey’s Luc Ilicic.
Chilliwack’s Alessandro Marvaldi was in the hunt, finishing third at 39.82m. Marvaldi came within a whisker of the podium in the senior men’s 800 gram javelin, finishing fourth with a mark of 49.24m. The third place finisher, Mission’s Tanner Geringer, posted 49.69m.
Chilliwack athletes combined for 14 individual medals, with Unity Christian adding a team bronze medal in the 4x400m junior men’s relay.
Unity Christian’s Juane Klaus and Chilliwack middle school’s Christina Peet-Williams staged an epic battle in the Grade 8 girl’s 1500m race. Klaus grabbed gold with a time of 4:57.12, with Williams right behind her at 5:01.45. Williams got her revenge in the 800m race, winning with a time of 2:24.09 while Klaus was disqualified.
Williams placed second in the 3000m run (10:57.41) and Klaus bounced back to place third in the 400m (1:01.74).
Unity Christian’s Wiltosso Neufeld won a pair of bronze medals.
In the junior men’s 200m dash he timed 23.02 seconds, a finger snap behind the winning time of 22.56s posted by Reynolds secondary (Victoria) school’s Chase Haagensen.
Neufeld bagged his second bronze in the junior men’s 400m with a time of 50.78s.
Unity Christian’s Nataneal Haan missed gold by a hair in the Grade 8 men’s long jump.
He soared 5.58m to finish second behind the 5.88m posted by Handsworth’s Lenny Bonduau. Haan was fourth in the Grade 8 boy’s 100m dash with a blistering time of 12.14s.
Vedder middle school’s Connor Crevier finished third in the Grade 8 men’s 1500m, with GW Graham’s Khauner Fast placing 23rd. Those two finished seventh and 16th respectively in the 3000m.
Vedder middle school’s Marijke Meindertsma and Dashia Lightle went head to head in the Grade 8 girl’s javelin. Meindertsma placed second at 29.91m and Lightle finished fifth at 26.79m. Highroad’s Shaelyn Grimard was 10th in that event and 19th in triple jump.
Other top five finishers were Rylan Laurillard (Vedder, fourth, junior men’s racewalk), Jasmine Soltys (Chilliwack, fifth, senior women’s javelin) and Larissa Cote (Vedder, fifth in high and long jump).
Top 10 finishers were Curtis Freeston (Highroad, 10th, junior men’s 5kg hammer), Ethan Lachowich (AD Rundle, seventh, junior men’s 700 gram javelin), Caleb Graham (Unity, seventh, junior men’s 1500m steeplechase), Jorge Aparicio (Chilliwack, ninth, junior men’s 1500m steeplechase), Josh Lutyn (Unity, ninth, senior men’s 1.75kg discus) and Andrena Johnson (Sardis, seventh, junior women’s 3000m and 10th, junior women’s 1500m).
