Surrey sprinter pulls off provincial hat trick
Jasneet Nijjar is already jumping at encore ideas.
“I’ll maybe put some hurdles in,” the Grade 11 from Surrey’s Queen Elizabeth secondary said about next year’s provincial track and field championships. “We’ll see what happens when we get there.”
Nijjar, who turns 17 next week, is fresh off of crafting a rare hat trick at this year’s B.C. meet in Langley on the weekend, with wins in the girls 100, 200 and 400 metres. She repeated at these B.C. finals as 200 champion with her 24.22 seconds effort, and in the 400 with her 55.71 performance. She won the 100 crown for the first time after her clocking of 12.17 in the finale.
Dating back to 1969, she’s just the third female to win those three events in the same year, following Kitsilano’s Diana Clarke in 1983 and Zion Corrales-Nelson of Burnaby’s St. Thomas More in 2016.
She does consider the 200 as her go-to distance.
“They’re all so different,” Nijjar said of her trio of races. “The 100 goes by fast. You get to the finish line and you say to yourself, ‘I’m already done?’ The 400 has this mental aspect to it. What am I going to do for the first 50 metres? And then the next 50? When do I have to accelerate?”
Nijjar is also part of the Surrey-based Universal Athletics Club team, and many of their members had strong showings at the high school provin- cials. Kenny Blackman Jr. won the 100 (10.89) and came in second in the 200 (22.18) for Surrey Christian, while Katarina Vlahovic, under the banner of Surrey’s Fraser Heights secondary, won the 100metre hurdles (14.19) and took second behind Nijjar in the 200 (24.89).
Aaryanna Kurucz helped Maple Ridge claim the overall Triple-A team title with a win in the 400-metre hurdles (1:04.70), a second behind Nijjar in the 400 (57.52), and a role in wins for relay teams in the 4x100 metres (49.85) and 4x400 metres (4:01.60).
Maple Ridge (89 points) beat out Victoria’s Oak Bay (56), Langley’s Mountain (49) and Mission (47) for the team crown.
The club season continues now for Nijjar, who is still aiming to qualify for the IAAF Under-20 championships in Tampere, Finland, which run from July 10 to15. Qualifying standard in the 200 metres is 24.20. She has until July 2 to attain that.
Another competitor of note who’s looking to head to Finland is high jumper Alexa Porpaczy. Porpaczy, who was featured in The Province last week, repeated as champion at the provincials, jumping 1.70 metres for Surrey’s Semiahmoo secondary. She needs a 1.82 jump to qualify for Finland. Porpaczy won the provincials last year with a 1.80. She’s committed to the University of Arizona next season.