UVic student wins pole vault competition
Thirty-one years after his dad, former Canadian-champion pole-vaulter Owen Clements, competed at Centennial Stadium in his hometown 1994 Commonwealth Games, son Isaac Clements vaulted to victory in the same location Sunday in the 37th Victoria Track Classic.
The younger Clements tied his personal best of 4.70 metres but was disappointed not to surpass it in winning the competition in front of an enthusiastic gallery in the main grandstand.
“I’m hard on myself,” he said.
“The crowd brought me energy and it would have been nice to get a personal best.”
But then he remembered the words of his dad, who is also his coach: “He tells me to ‘have fun with it because it’s not the bars cleared but the friends made along the way.’ I always try to remember that.”
That’s been good advice as Isaac Clements, 23, won the B.C. high school championship in Grade 10 and Grade 12 and the silver medal in Grade 11 when at Oak Bay Secondary. Now completing his education degree at UVic as a budding elementary school teacher, the younger Clements also won the bronze medal with Team B.C. at the 2022 Canada Summer Games in the Niagara Region.
Clements was a hockey player until Grade 9 when those family vaulting genes kicked in: “I was just a kid at the track watching and then I tried pole vault and wasn’t very good at it at first.”
But that family background simply wouldn’t be denied. The next goal is to try to reach the World Athletics championships qualifying standard of five metres at the Canadian trials July 30 to Aug. 2 in Ottawa for the 2025 world championships in September in Tokyo.
The ultimate family goal is to meet or beat his dad’s personal best vault of 5.35 metres.
“I’ve got some work to do to reach that,” said the younger Clements.
Another notable winner Sunday at the Victoria Track Classic was Marisha Thompson of the UVic Vikes winning the women’s 3,000 metres in 9:37.53 in preparation to represent Canada in the steeplechase at the 2025 World University Games next month in Berlin.
The native of Norwood, Ont., was a rep goaltender and turned down U.S. collegiate NCAA Div. 1 offers in hockey to run instead run NCAA Div. 1 track at Florida Atlantic and Toledo universities: “The agility needed to be a goalie made me a good jumper for the steeplechase.”
Thompson came to UVic to complete her university eligibility under Vikes head coach Hilary Stellingwerff, a two-time middle-distance Olympian for Canada at London 2012 and Rio 2016. That partnership is paying off as Thompson has returned from serious injury.
“The [2028] Los Angeles Olympics are definitely a goal, as long as I can stay healthy,” said the second-year UVic psychology major Thompson, whose butterfly tattoos on her left thigh hide the scars from surgery following a hip injury.
“This is my first national team and I’ll see what I can do at the World University Games. Today was a good workout toward that.”
Thompson won the 3,000 metres women’s race by a wide margin at Centennial Stadium: “There was just me, the track and the wind.”
[email protected]