CAYUGA/CALEDONIA—Thirty-five centimetres is not a great distance, but when an athlete is trying to improve by that much in the vertical direction, it’s another story.
When Malaya teBrake of Caledonia first attended a practice of Athletiques International Track and Field Club of Cayuga with her grandfather, it was made clear that the event that interested her the most was high jump. The first thing that the club coach did was enter her into a meet to see what he had to work with, and, although her first clearance at 95cm (0.95m) was not something to write home about, he recognized that she had a lot of errors to be corrected.
Since the local club has no mats available for practice, he had her do a series of jumping exercises to simulate the take-off. Since then, she has improved, literally, by leaps and bounds.
At the Minor Track Association Outdoor Championships at Bill Crothers Secondary School in Markham in July, she won the Tyke girls event with a jump of 1.15m, winning the event by 10cm.
At her next competition, she was bunched with older athletes, and, after clearing 1.2m, the officials would not allow an increase of less than five centimetres. Although she had several close jumps at 1.25m, she was not quite ready for that height.
At the Ontario Rising Stars Championships at York University on Saturday, however, she not only out-jumped her own Under-10 age group, but also the Under-12 girls as well, leaving her alone to decide where the bar would move up to. After clearing the bar at 1.2m, she asked to have it put at 1.22m, for a new personal record, clearing it easily, as she did again at 1.25m. Her first miss in the competition came at 1.30m. After two unsuccessful attempts, she gathered herself for her final attempt, and launched her body clear of the bar but unfortunately not her feet, with one of them causing the bar to dislodge.
Along with her favourite event, she has been introduced to others, finishing fourth in both the 60m hurdles (13.45 seconds) and shot put (5.44m). She has also taken a liking to javelin, which she did against the Under-12 girls at the MTA Championship, since it’s not offered in her age group.
She has one more outdoor competition left in the season, as the club travels to Brock University in St. Catharines September 22, for a meet in the same facility used for the Canada Games in 2022, which may be a harbinger of things to come.
