Mitch Calvert
There’s always next year.
Josh Strain, a Grade 11 student at Fort High, bowed out of the OFSAA senior boys’ high jump competition in Toronto on Friday with a 16th-place showing.
Strain failed to clear 1.80 metres—a height he made in taking gold at the NWOSSAA championships last month in Thunder Bay—and will have to set his sights on improving for his senior year.
Strain went into last year’s OFSAA meet in Hamilton with no expectations and came back with a top five finish in the junior boys’ high jump. But higher expectations this time around ultimately may have hindered his performance.
“I knew it was going to be tougher,” Strain said of the senior field. “I didn’t expect I was going to jump that bad, but it just didn’t turn out as good as it did last year.
“I think I was just thinking too much when I was jumping,” he admitted.
“Usually I just want to go and do it, and this time I guess I psyched myself out.”
Last year’s junior champ, Branden Wilhelm of Woodstock, won gold with an impressive jump of 2.08 metres.
Strain rose to track and field prominence a year ago when he placed in the top two in the high, triple, and long jumps at the NWOSSAA championships en route to taking the junior boys’ high points trophy at that event.
He also had top 20 finishes in both the triple jump and long jump at the all-Ontarios last June to go with his fifth-place showing in the high jump.
Strain’s unexpected performance prompted the high school to acquire high jump standards (a luxury he went without a year ago).
The Muskie athlete hopes to take advantage of the tools available to him to practice throughout the summer, and also hopes to attend the Legion Athletic Camp at the Peace Gardens in Manitoba sometime this summer.
“I’m going to be practising a lot more, and maybe go to camp to get some further training,” Strain remarked.
