Crocus boys claim provincial golds

WINNIPEG — It turns out Jasim Ameh didn’t set the bar high enough for himself at track and field provincials.

It’s a good thing someone else did it for him.

The Crocus Plainsmen sophomore shattered his expectations and his personal best, clearing 1.77 metres to win the junior varsity boys’ high jump gold medal at University of Manitoba Stadium on Saturday.

“Man, it was more than a surprise. I was planning on taking maybe top 10 and being happy,” Ameh said.

Ameh, who developed into a key piece of the Plainsmen JV boys’ basketball team this year, wasn’t sure what to expect at his first track and field provincials. He didn’t qualify for the 400-metre final but felt good after eclipsing his previous high jump record of 1.68m in preliminaries with a 1.70 jump on his first attempt.

Of course, it was going to take more than that in Saturday’s final, and while he had a few faults along the way, he stayed focused and was down to the final three at 1.77.

“My coach was like, ‘Let’s go for the gold.’ I was like, ‘Bet,’” Ameh said. “It was taller than me.

“I had to keep telling myself I could do it, because once I got into my head, there’s nothing else I could do. Just thinking about it, doing a quick prayer, running, doing my thing, I showed up.”

He faulted on his first attempt, then sailed clean over the bar on his second, and no one else was able to.

“You gotta believe in yourself before you can actually achieve it,” Ameh said.

“I got over it, everyone was yelling, best feeling of my life.”

MARITZ WINS DOUBLE GOLD

Elbert Maritz had sky-high hopes for his only outdoor provincials with Crocus after moving from South Africa last year.

While track athletes enjoyed a strong tailwind all weekend, the throwers drew the short straw.

A slight headwind is ideal for javelin, but when it blows around 30 kilometres per hour, as it did most of the day, expectations simply must change.

Maritz settled for 49.97 metres, three centimetres shy of 50m, and that was more than good enough to claim varsity boys’ provincial gold.

“It was amazing. The feeling’s amazing. It was my first provincial in Canada, unfortunately, probably my last now, but it was fun,” Maritz said.

“Unfortunately, I did not reach the goal I was hoping for, but definitely not too mad at myself for what happened.”

Maritz added a dominant performance in his second-best event, the discus. He entered Sunday’s final as the top seed and left no doubt.

Maritz threw 44.90 metres, more than seven metres clear of second place.

While success was his expectation as someone who has competed on the national stage in his home country for years, one of the highlights of the weekend was simply being part of a team.

“Being a group in the hotel, under the (tents), just being a group and supporting each other, going to watch the guys running (was great),” he said. “Everybody here, we’re all a team.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com