Taylor Goodick briefly held a javelin record on Friday, until it was broken minutes later by Michael Adams.
Goodick, of Shelburne Regional High School, threw a distance of 51.43 metres at the NSSAF provincial track and field meet at Beazley Field in Dartmouth to break Logan Cleveland’s 49.63m intermediate boys’ record from 2013.
Adams, of Cobequid Educational Centre, then threw the javelin 51.86m. He said Goodick’s throw gave him a necessary push.
“I didn’t start off too well,” said Adams. “Him doing that well really pushed me to go for it.”
The Grade 10 student had actually thrown a personal best distance of 50.39m at a district meet earlier in the season, which was a longer distance than the provincial record, but those can only be broken at provincial meets.
“I was hoping I could do it again,” he said.
Adams also holds the record for junior boys’ javelin, set in 2015 when he was a student at Truro Junior High.
CEC throwers also placed in third, fourth and sixth spots in intermediate boys javelin on Friday.
Their coach, Iain Lapointe, said CEC has typically been strong in field events and said this year’s team is well rounded.
The Truro school won both intermediate and senior banners at the Northumberland regional meet last weekend, based on points from events in both track and field disciplines.
Lapointe said the school has one of the largest contingents at the meet, with 60 athletes competing. He said this is partly due to the large student population, but also because track and field is well promoted.
“It’s a large school, but it’s a very good program. We really push the team aspect of it,” he said.
“The kids do a really good job supporting each other.”
1,000 athletes, 116 schools
The throwers were among the approximately 1,000 athletes participating from 116 schools across the province, qualifying at regional meets.
Meet director Donna Duggan of Halifax West high school said the meet was running smoothly on Friday, although it started off with a few technical difficulties with the electronic timing system.
She said the two-day event involves months of planning and more than 100 volunteers who perform tasks such as officiating, raising and lowering hurdles and high jump bars, raking jumping pits and working at the gate. Both adults and students volunteer their time.
Briand first in hurdles
Myla Briand of Pictou Academy was surprised to find herself on the podium after placing first in the junior girls’ hurdles event.
Usually clocking a time of 14 seconds flat, she ran 13.64 to capture the gold medal.
“I didn’t think I was going to make it this far. I just wanted to make my coach and my team and myself proud,” said the Grade 8 student, who is only in her second year of competing in hurdles.
“I wanted to win — that’s always a goal in racing — but I wasn’t sure what the result was going to be.”
She said she didn’t have that much faith in herself, but she was both excited and overwhelmed by the win.
