Waterloo Region Record

Breaking ground in record fashion

Cameron Heights’ Shadd-Ceres sets OFSAA West milestone

MARK BRYSON WATERLOO REGION RECORD

CAMBRIDGE Kenen Shadd has accepted the inevitable, that his dreadlocks are living on borrowed time.

Shadd, the uncle and coach of Cameron Heights’ standout Trinity Shadd-Ceres, admitted as much Saturday after his niece won the senior girls’ long jump competition in record fashion at the OFSAA West track and field championship.

Shadd-Ceres recorded 6.19 and 6.20-metre efforts in her first two attempts at Jacob Hespeler Secondary School to twice break the 5.92-metre mark set in 1996 by Laura Wesseling of Delhi.

“I made a bet with my uncle that I get to shave his head if I jump 6.20 today, so the whole time I was jumping, he was chirping in my ears, trying to throw me off,” Shadd-Ceres said with a smile.

“I’m going to use a razor, and I can’t wait to see his shiny scalp.”

Not so fast, said Shadd, who has been wearing the dreads for about 15 years.

His recollection of the agreement was that he would allow his niece to shave his head with a jump “over” 6.20. Shadd then said he would honour the deal if his niece exceeded the number at next week’s OFSAA meet in Ottawa.

“I think she’ll do it at OFSAA, and my job as a coach is to motivate her,” said Shadd. “So a bet’s a bet, and I’ll let her do it.”

Shadd-Ceres, who won the senior girls’ 100-metre dash on Friday in 12.15 seconds, was one of the standout performers at the two-day OFSAA West meet. The top four finishers from each event at OFSAA West qualify for the three-day OFSAA championship that starts Thursday in Ottawa.

Nicholas Tozer, a Grade 11 student at Forest Heights, achieved his premeet goal of qualifying for OFSAA in four events by winning the senior boys’ 100 metres, the 110-metre and 400-metre hurdles, and helping the Trojans to a third-place finish in the open boys’ 4x400-metre relay.

Resurrection speedster Dominik Bahadur took first in the junior boys’ 100 and 200-metre races and did so convincingly. He won the 200-metre race on Saturday in 22.63 and finished comfortably ahead of Woodland Christian’s Deinma Tomlin, who was second in 23.15.

Andrew Corbeil of Monsignor Doyle also swept a pair of races, winning the junior boys’ 1,500-metre race in 4:10.58 and the 3,000metre event in 9:11.48.

Natural talent

Shadd-Ceres dominated at OFSAA West without any recent training under her belt.

The gifted and hard-working Grade 11 student is also an elite volleyball player who represented Canada at last month’s Under-19 NORCECA Pan American Cup in Puerto Rico. She returned from the competition — her first time playing for Canada — with a minor injury and chose rest over training to prepare for OFSAA West and beyond.

Volleyball is Shadd-Ceres’ first love, and she has committed to continue her academic and athletic careers at the University of Wisconsin in 2024 on a one-sport scholarship.

“Volleyball only,” she emphasized. Shadd-Ceres was to play in the first Bio-Steel All-Canadian Girls (U16, U17) Volleyball Games on Sunday in Toronto before fully turning her focus to track and field.

This week she’ll return to training at Maximum Performance — where she is coached by her uncle Kenen, club co-founder Dave Tomlin and her mother, Crystal Shadd — to begin preparations for OFSAA and beyond.

Shadd-Ceres needs to record a 6.46-metre jump to achieve the qualifying standard for the Aug. 4 to 6 Pan American U20 championship but would pass on the event if she is selected to play for Canada at the Aug. 1 to 11 FIVB Volleyball Girls’ U19 World Championship in Croatia and Hungary.

“She usually peaks later on in the summer and I would not be surprised to see her jump over 6.6 this summer,” said Kenen Shadd. “Then we’re on pace for the Olympic standard next year.”

Golden performances

The other Waterloo Region athletes to finish first at OFSAA West are Austin Adair (Resurrection, novice boys’ 400 metres), Victoria Vaughan (KCI, novice girls’ high jump), Ben Leveck (Laurel Heights, novice boys’ pole vault), Nadya Nemes (St. Mary’s, novice girls’ triple jump), Savannah Griffith (Resurrection, novice girls’ javelin), Anna Douma (Woodland Christian, junior girls’ 800 metres), Joel Rumph (Woodland Christian, junior boys’ high jump), Hannah Vanhartingsveldt (St. David, junior girls’ triple jump), Sam Hessels (Woodland Christian, senior girls’ high jump), Lena Eys (KCI, open girls’ 2,000-metre steeplechase), and Maleki McCue (Glenview Park, shot put ambulatory).

Julia Tunks of London Oakridge destroyed the senior girls’ discus record with a 54.06-metre effort to erase the 48.20 mark set in 1982 by Liz Polyak of Brantford North Park.

‘‘ She usually peaks later on in the summer and I would not be surprised to see her jump over 6.6 this summer.

KENEN SHADD TRACK COACH, UNCLE OF TRINITY SHADD-CERES

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2023-06-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

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