McLeod Park, Langley, August 17–Vikramjit Gondara tossed the hammer 59.44 metres Sunday at the Canadian Age Class Championships that took place at McLeod Park in Langley. Gondara’s monster throw gave him the gold medal and easily surpassed the former record of 53.94 metres set in 2012 by Drew Erskine of Nova Scotia. Fifteen year old Gondara has now established himself as a premier thrower and a talent that could dominate the hammer event in his age division. For good measure Gondara placed fourth in the discus event with 48.94 metre performance.
Tasha Willing won a silver medal in the youth division shot put with a toss of 13.20 metres and came 6th in the hammer with a of 50.81 metre performance. It was an excellent conclusion to the season for the young lady from Chilliwack who makes the trek to Abbotsford three times per week to train under the watchful eye of throwing coach Harold Willers.
Michael Lambert won a bronze medal in the midget men’s high jump with a leap of 1.88 metres. It was a departure from the usual throwing events that Michael’s two older brothers are known for.
Several other notable performances were recorded by club members at the meet. Jayden Driver was fifth in the Youth hammer (48.64m), Joshua Adhemar emerged from Sue Northey’s distance group to place sixth in the final of the 300m hurdles (40.84), and seventh places were recorded by Spencer Spenst in the Youth high jump (1.88m) and Hannah Konrad in the Youth women’s 800 metres (2:17.34). Aidan Bingert placed 15th in the always competitive Youth 800 metres with the very creditable time of 1:58.59 while Timothy Bertness was 12th in the triple jump (12.29), 5th in Pole Vault and 9th in Javelin.