Buoyed by a pair of personal-best performances, Kelowna’s Madelyn Hettinga ran, jumped and threw her way to a gold medal at the B.C. Secondary School heptathlon championships in Surrey on the weekend.

Photo Credit: ContributedKelowna's Madelyn Hettinga earned top podium position at the B.C. heptathlon championships.The Kelowna Secondary School student-athlete led a field of nine multi-talented competitors with a seven-discipline total of 4,228 points, nearly 200 more than runner-up Holly Harrison of Walnut Grove in Langley.

Hettinga, 17, got out of the blocks quickly by winning both the 100-metre hurdles and the high jump to start the competition on Friday. While she was just short of her personal best (15.30) in the hurdles, the Grade 11 student crossed first in 15.79, edging out Okanagan Mission Huskies’ Muriel Stroda (15.86) who later filed a protest based on unintentional obstruction by one of the competitors.

Although the girl in question apologized to Stroda immediately after the race for obstructing her, and the Stroda camp had provided video footage, the jury of appeal granted no re-run.

Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowHettinga got off to a quick start by winning the 100-metre hurdles. 

A leap of 1.59 metres in the high jump bettered Hettinga’s previous best of 1.55 and earned her 35 points more than Harrison in the second event.

“That was probably the most satisfying result of the weekend,” recalled Hettinga. “I’d been stuck at 1.55 for a year now, so it was great to get past that point.”

Hettinga and Stroda (who didn’t compete on Saturday) traded places in the shot put, the latter winning with a personal-best heave of 10.17 metres and Hettinga finishing second with a distance of 9.71 metres, just short of her personal record of 9.81.

The final event on Friday saw Hettinga finish second to Calei O’Flaherty of North Vancouver's St. Thomas Aquinas of Vancouver (26.30) with a time of 26.75 to end Day 1 nearly 200 points ahead of her nearest rival (Harrison). Stroda finished third in that race, tying her PB of 26.86 at that distance.

 Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowA personal-best performance in the javelin was a key to first-overall hep finish.While a disappointing result (fifth place) by Hettinga in the long jump — the first event  on Saturday — kept the points race close, her first place in the javelin with a personal-best throw of 31.58 was a quick positive response.

 “Beating my PB by 3.37 was a bit of a surprise, although I had been putting some extra work in on it,” said the 6’1”, 145-pound Hettinga. “It turned out to be huge — a key to the overall win.”

Going into the final event (800 metres) with a comfortable overall points lead, Hettinga knew that if she could at least stay with the pack, she would be in good shape. With each second worth 13 points, she needed to finish without 17 seconds of O’Flaherty, the fastest in the field at that distance.

Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowMulti-talented Muriel Stroda of Okanagan Mission expected to be in medal contention at provincial meet in Kelowna.While O’Flaherty breezed to the win in 2:22.99, Hettinga did stay with the rest of the pack and finished 11 seconds back to retain her overall lead and claim the hep gold.

Coached by John Machuga and several other mentors at the Vernon Track and Field Club, Hettinga was taking part in her first full heptathlon, although she has been competing in the different disciplines individually.

She started training for the hep last season but was sidelined with injury and limited in the events she could do. Plenty of strength training during the past year has kept the injuries at bay.

Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowSummerland's Keagan Ingram (963) and Michael Schriemer (360) of OKM will represent the Okanagan zone at the B.C. Secondary Schools Track and Field Association Championships at the Apple Bowl beginning on Thursday.The track and field victory was the second provincial gold in this school year for the Hettinga, who was a key figure in the Kelowna Owls winning the B.C. senior quad-A volleyball championship in the fall.

She said she “loved” the weekend competition in Abbotsford despite the cool temperature on Friday and the rain on Saturday that had a tempering effect on the results.

“It was so much fun to be able to do so many different events and trying different things over two days,” she added. “It’s hard thinking about the best way to approach the heptathlon because you don’t need to win every event. You can be second or third in most events and still win the overall. There is a lot more strategy to it than the regular races, throws and jumps.”

Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowTactics will be less complicated but Hettinga expects to have just as much fun this weekend when she joins 2,400 athletes from throughout B.C. at the provincial secondary school track and field championships at the Apple Bowl beginning on Thursday and running through Saturday.

She’ll be competing in the 100 and 400 hurdles and javelin, while joining her KSS teammates Emma Cannan, Lindsay Maier and Kenaysha Lyder in the 4×100 relay.

Meanwhile Stroda will also be among the many Central Okanagan zone competitors at the provincial championships this week. She’s ranked third in the 100 hurdles with a personal-best of 15.04 seconds and is seeded fifth in the long jump with a 5.11-metre PB. She’ll also represent OKM in the javelin and is seeded ninth at 33.04 metres.

Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNowProvincial championship action begins at 3:05 p.m. on Thursday with the junior girls and boys steeplechase, while the 400-metre and 1500-metre heats follow. The 4×100 heats — beginning at 7:10 p.m. — will close out the track events on opening day. Also on the schedule for Thursday are high jump, triple jump and long jump events as well as shot put and discus.

Action resumes on Friday at 8:30 a.m. and will continue until about 7 p.m.. On Saturday, athletes will compete from 8:20 a.m. to 5 p.m..