It was good, but not good enough.
Still, Kurt McCormack won’t return the silver medal he won in triple jump at the 2010 Canadian track and field championships Friday in Toronto, even if, he said, the 14.72-metre leap wasn’t his best work.
“I think it was almost the same situation as Canada Games. I never jumped as far as I wanted to,” McCormack said Monday in an interview from Irvine, Calif. “But at the end of the day, it’s an accomplishment.”
McCormack, 22, won bronze at the 2009 Canada Games in P.E.I. with a leap of 14.93 metres. He had cracked the 15-metre line more than once at Dickinson State University in North Dakota that year but couldn’t find the range in P.E.I.
Nor could he in Toronto. But McCormack pins it on a long season, which started last October in North Dakota and, with few breaks, ended last weekend at the nationals.
And there’s only so much he can do to remain at the physical high he reached when he set his personal best of 15.54 metres earlier this year.
“It’s just the way it is. It’s hard to maintain that peak,” he said. “It’s just how my body reacts. It got me a silver so obviously I did something right.”
Jacob Zorzella of Toronto won the triple jump gold (15.47 metres), his second straight national title, while David St. Bernard of Scarborough, Ont., took bronze (14.71 metres).
McCormack’s medal was one of two podium performances by Islanders at the nationals.
New Haven native Jared Connaughton won gold in the men’s 200 metres with a time of 20.66, his second 200-metres title in three years.
And he earned silver in the 100-metre event (10:28), beaten out by Brian Barnett (10:21) for the gold. Connaughton owns the best 200 metres time in Canada this year (20.61).
McCormack jumped off his usual right foot in the final in Toronto after months of jumping off his left.
It was strictly a comfort level thing, he said, after a poor first attempt (14.18 metres). There were no preliminaries, only a 13-man final, so he had no wiggle room and reverted to his old style.
“The right came natural. I was jumping off a 13-metre board (for the first time) so I was nervous (with my left foot).”
For now, McCormack is in Irvine, visiting his girlfriend and resting before returning to North Dakota for his final year at Dickinson State.
The indoor track season begins in October and McCormack plans to add long jump to his events in the fall, which included 4x100 and 4x200 metre relay events last season.
He graduates in May 2011 and plans on competing at the 2011 nationals in Calgary next summer.
He won bronze in 2009, silver over the weekend, and next year?
“Next year I’m going for the gold and then I’ll have all three,” he said with a laugh.
Connaughton returns to P.E.I. before joining Barnett and other members of the Canadian 4x100-metre men’s relay team in Germany for a training camp. The team will race in IAAF Diamond League meets in Zurich, Switzerland, and Brussels, Belgium.
creid@theguardian.pe.ca
***** Kurt McCormack's results at the Canadian national track and field championships since 2006: u2010: Silver, triple jump (14.72 metres). u2009: Bronze, triple jump (15.02 metres); 200 metre qualifying heat (22:85). u2008: 10th, triple jump (14.40 metres); 100 metre qualifying heat (11.25). u2007: Fourth, triple jump (14.77 metres); 400 metre qualifying heat (53:41). u2006: Fifth, triple jump (14.44 metres).
