Gayle blows away SOSSA competition

A family trip almost derailed Amairah Gayle’s chance to be a triple gold medalist at the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association track and field meet this Wednesday and Thursday at Centennial.

The Grade 9 student at St. Catharines Collegiate captured a pair of gold medals Wednesday, winning the novice girls long jump with a personal best jump of 5.20 metres and then setting a SOSSA record in the 100 metres, running 12.52 seconds in the preliminaries and 12.71 seconds in the final. The previous SOSSA record was 12.72 seconds.

All that was left was the high jump Thursday but her family was scheduled to fly out to British Columbia to visit her uncle. The event started at 9:30 a.m. and she would have had to leave the meet at 10 a.m. to catch the flight but her mom was able to change the flight time and allow Amairah to compete. She took full advantage of the opportunity and won the high jump with a leap of 1.6 metres, which was 0.15 metres higher than the silver medalist.

“I was happy she was able to change it. I think I would have stayed (to compete) but I am not sure,” the 15-year-old St. Catharines resident said. “It would have been hard to pick because it is my first time going to B.C. with my family and we always travel together.”

The other complicating factor is that high jump is her favourite event. She won the Athletics Ontario under-16 girls indoor high jump championship with a personal best jump of 1.61 metres in March. Gayle also represented Team Ontario for high jump indoors and won the event.

“Ever since I was young, I didn’t really like running. I liked jumping and it is kind of more technical. It gave me something to work really hard on and try and fix.”

She loves everything about the event.

“It’s the feeling of getting over the bar, barely making it over getting a PB.”

The Thorold Elite Track Club member, who broke Zone 4 records last week in long jump and the 100 metres, described her form as really bad when she started high jump.

“I was scissoring it but then falling on my back at the last minute. I didn’t bend my back at all so I couldn’t really jump high at all.”

The form came together when she joined Thorold Elite and began getting instruction from coach Pat Reid.

“I saw her at a track meet in Grade 7; this was back when the schools were still not offering high jump and I said, ‘I really think you should come here and do high jump and hurdles,’ ” Thorold Elite coach Steven Fife said. “It took until the following year but she joined when she was in Grade 8. Her parents saw me at the meet the next year and said, ‘She’s ready’ and it has been awesome from there. Within a few months, she went from jumping about 1.40 in high jump to 1.57 and then indoors this year she broke 1.60.”

Gayle competes in high jump, long jump, 80-metre hurdles and the 100 metres.

“The 100 isn’t even one of her main events but was used largely just for speed purposes,” Fife said. “Hurdles is a little harder for her right now because she’s so tall and has so much speed and the spacing between them is so short for Grade 9 girls that she really needs more room between them so she didn’t do that for school season but we are looking forward to getting back to that this summer.”

She joined Thorold Elite because she wanted to get better at track and field.

“I was seeing everyone around me surpassing me because they had more training and they were doing more. It has worked out because I used to run 100 metres in 13 and it has turned into 12.52.”

Her goals for the spring season are to make to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations track and field meet in all three events and get to 1.63 metres in the high jump.

Fife won’t be betting against her.

“Amairah is one of those special talents that any coach would be lucky to have. She is mature, dedicated, very coachable and has a great support system. She should be a candidate for OFSAA medals, provincial medals and even national medals this summer.”

She trains twice a week for high jump with Thorold Elite and once or twice a week for sprinting.

“I try to go as much as I can but I have a busy schedule.”

Gayle is motivated by her extended family.

“I have cousins who play basketball and they are doing really well with it. I want to be able to do the same.”

One cousin, Roddy Gayle Jr., averaged 13.5 points a game this past season for the Ohio State men’s basketball team and has transferred to Michigan.