Turner jumps onto Bisons track and field team

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This article was published 23/05/2020 (2190 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Daxx Turner has made leaps and bounds more impressive than any high school track star in the province, and now he’ll continue his career just a hop, skip and jump away from home.

If you want to get technical, it is a little fewer than 13,000 of the Neepawa triple jumper’s top jumps to reach the University of Manitoba’s Max Bell Centre. But few can say that, and the Bisons have a special talent coming on for the 2020-21 Canada West season in triple jump and high jump.

“It was really great,” Turner said of the recruiting process with U of M.

“There was a lot of times where I wasn’t sure where I was going to go.”

The 18-year-old visited some Ontario universities and was in talks with major NCAA Division I schools including Louisiana State and Florida State.

“There was some coaches I’d reached out to, we had short conversations and it went nowhere,” Turner said. “I’m glad I’m going to be still close to home. I’ve been working with (track coach) Mingpu Wu (in Winnipeg) since November and I’ll get to work with him next year.

“I’m excited to still work with Ming, still be around friends, family, still be on a track I’m familiar with. I think it was a great decision.”

Turner has quite the resumé already. He won gold in triple jump and silver in high jump at high school provincials in 2019. Then blew his 14.59-metre triple jump out of the water with a 15.04 at the GO Classic in Winnipeg a few weeks later.

That jump was the fourth best by a Canadian all year and third all-time in Canada at the under-18 level. (It was wind-legal, with a 2.0 metres per second helping wind just within the limit.)

Since then, the past indoor season taught the 18-year-old a lot.

“There were lot of things I learned not necessarily all the sport but about my mindset and myself,” Turner said.

“The biggest thing I took away … was in the past I let my brain and my emotions get in the way of what I can do.”

Turner reflected on the Simplot Games in Idaho in February. It’s one of the premier high school track and field events in North America and Turner won bronze in the boys’ triple jump at 14.55. He said he got too excited and wasn’t properly focused.

That continued at the Boeing Indoor Championships a few weeks later, but he turned a corner.

“I was still worked up, got a little too excited and didn’t perform how I wanted to,” Turner said.

“When I showed up at the high school championships, I sat back and looked at the last few meets I had been to and realized I needed to relax.

“I stopped focusing on jumping far and started focusing on jumping properly. That’s when things clicked and I jumped a 14.9 when I’d been jumping 14.6s throughout the season.”

Turner still won the Boeing triple jump at 14.79 and surprised himself when he cleared an even two metres in high jump.

He took gold in both at the high school championships in March with jumps of 14.92m and 1.90.

“It was back to that mindset thing. Triple jump I wanted to jump far, high jump was more for fun. When you’re focused on jumping properly, things come together,” Turner said.

“I didn’t even expect to clear 1.95 this season, so clearing two metres was a big moment for me.”

For reference as to where Turner stacks up with university competition, Manitoba’s Oyinkansola Akinola won Canada West gold at 14.73m, and second was 14.59. Akinola won silver at nationals with a jump of 14.74, while Toronto’s Femi Akinduro won at an astounding 15.22.

Turner is definitely on the glass-half-full side of the COVID-19 pandemic, even though it wiped out his final high school provincials and likely the rest of the outdoor season.

“This whole shutdown has made me a better athlete. I’ve now got all this time to really focus on the little things, building a good base. I’ve really stepped up my core and my basic strength I would have forgotten about because I was so focused on competing,” Turner said.

“I’m really building a base. Right now I’m focused on getting my fitness and basic strength up to a level when I can put all my efforts into the university workouts. I know it’s going to be a lot of work.”

Turner is grateful for his coaches, including Prairie Storm Athletics founder Bryce Koscielny, and his parents for supporting him throughout his journey.

When he hits the rubber in the fall, he knows it’s not all about himself.

“I’m focused on working my hardest to hopefully bring home some medals and points for the team, really keeping my emotions in check,” Turner said.

“Next year, it’s not just for me anymore. I’m doing it for the university team, so my focus is going to be about the team and less about myself, and I think that’ll help me in the long run.”

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