The championship will see five different divisions compete in their respective events: boys decathlon, boys octathlon, boys pentathlon, girls heptathlon and girls pentathlon. Team points will be accumulated for Junior and Senior divisions only and points will be assigned for team scoring based on the following, with medals awarded to 1st-3rd and ribbons awarded to 4th-8th place:
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th |
10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
As for some athletes to watch, let's dive in.
Last year's Senior Boys Decathlon Silver Medalist, Aidan Turner, will be making an appearance. In 2022, Turner scored 6817 points over the ten events, 219 points behind Nate Paris, the eventual 2022 BC HS Decathlon Champion. Both athletes surpassed the previous B.C record, but Paris' total of 7036 points is the number cemented in the record books. However, this year Paris won't be in the picture, as he just completed his freshman collegiate season with the University of British Columbia, where just last week he became the 2023 NAIA Decathlon Champion, scoring a big total of 7232 points.
In 2022 Turner also competed in a few individual events at the BC High School Track and Field Championships, winning the Senior Boys 110m Hurdles in a time of 14.27, the Senior Boys Pole Vault with a mark of 4.85m and placed second in the Senior Boys Discus with a throw of 39.09m. He is definitely in a position to do something special this year.
Moving to the Boys Octathlon, the 2022 Champion, Enoch Lee of Surrey Christian will be back. He won by 151 points, with Thomas Wirtz of Pacific Academy placing second with a total of 3868 points and Maclean Carlson of Lord Byng placing third with a total of 3703 points. Wirtz and Carlson will also be back competing this year.
As for other returning athletes, Madison Gordon of R E Mountain Secondary, last year's Senior Girls Heptathlon Champion, is looking to defend her title. At the 2022 High School Multi-Events Championship, Gordon scored 4276 points, and weeks later at the National U18 Legion Track and Field Championships she put up an even better mark of 4398 points, becoming a National Champion in the process.
There will be a few others looking to challenge Gordon this weekend, including the 2022 Senior Girls Heptathlon Silver Medalist, Amelia Kristen, and the 2022 Junior Girls Heptathlon Gold Medalist, Marlena Tresnjo.
At last year's championship Kristen scored 3886 points, with a few of her championship performances including 1.47m in the high jump and 15.88 in the 100m hurdles, which she has already bettered in 2023. This year she has jumped as high as 1.60m and has consistently run under 15 seconds, running 14.74 at the VS2S Zone Championships and 14.53 at the LMISSTFA League Championships.
In 2022 Tresnjo also scored 3886 points at the Multi-Events Championship. Her marks in the Junior division were as follows: 80m hurdles/12.96, high jump/1.62m, shot put/8.01m, 200m/27.72m, long jump/4.87m, javelin/19.42m and 800m/2:42.87. This year she has already jumped 1.70m in the high jump, 5.18m in the long jump and thrown 22.66m in the javelin. This is bound to be an exciting two days of competition!
Stay tuned as the event gets underway and for full entries click here.