Bevy of east end athletes qualify for OFSAA T&F championships

By Fred Sherwin The Orléans Star

Fourteen athletes from Orléans and the surrounding area will be competing at the OFSAA provincial track and field championships in Ottawa this weekend, led by sprint hurdler and long jumper Timeo Atonfo from École secondaire publique Gisèle-Lalonde who qualified in three different events.

Atonfo won the junior boys 110-metre hurdles and both the long jump and triple jump at last week’s East Regional qualifying meet in Ottawa. He is hoping to repeat the success he had at last year’s provincial championships where he won the novice boys 300-metre hurdles and placed second in the 100-metre hurdles.

This year, he has decided to focus on the shorter distance and the long and triple jump.

It paid off last week with a first place finish in the junior boys long jump were he leapt a distance of 6.48 metres on his fourth of six attempts. The following day he soared 13.57 metres to win the triple jump by nearly a metre just minutes after setting a new meet record in the prelininary heats of the junior boys 100-metre hurdles.

The record stood for a little over two hours before Atonfo lowered it even further in the final, covering the 100-metre distance in 13.76 seconds. The old record was 13.91 seconds set by Mathew Ferguson from Perth in 2014.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14