Anderson Parent may have competed "unattached" at the recent Legion National Youth Track & Field Championships in Calgary, but he had no issue with finding team support as he enjoyed a major breakthrough performance.
Opting to attend the Canadian athletic showcase with no formal track club affiliation, the grade 12 student at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School sailed the discus 48.98 metres, good for fourth place in the U18 age bracket.
In a matter of just a few months, Parent has seen his throws in this event progress from 32.81m (SDSSAA) to 35.36m (NOSSA) and 43.78m/42.14m (Legion District H and provincials), extending his PB by another 15 feet or so in Alberta.
And with a half-dozen members of the Air Blastoff contingent on hand to help cheer him on, the young man who has also excelled at basketball at least had some celebratory companionship.
"Mister (Dane) MacVeigh (teacher at Lo-Ellen) helped me quite a bit, but I felt like I had more potential this year, so I watched a bunch of videos to try and get my technique a little bit better," said Parent, who captured gold in the Junior Boys Discus at NOSSA in 2024.
"I've improved mostly my footwork. I find that once you have the footwork, everything else just kind of falls into place."
While his elementary track career likely saw Parent mixing in the sprints and jumps with a throwing event (shot put) in competition, his focus during his tenure with the Knights has largely been shot put / discus / javelin driven.
"I've always liked the discus and javelin more than the shot put," he said. "Mostly javelin, especially last year. I think it was really just because I was doing better in that one than the other two - and I didn't like the whole spinning component of the discus."
The key to generating improvement while self-coaching lies in ensuring that one can enjoy the vantage point of both athlete and coach - and perhaps receiving a little helping hand along the way.
"I will go to Laurentian and take some discs that I borrowed from the school and just throw them a bunch of times," Parent explained. "I will take a few videos and watch them - and my mom (Sherry) is helping quite a bit, reminding me of little things."
If the performance from Anderson Parent came as a bit of an eye-opener, the same could not be said for many of the already well-established local talents who competed in Calgary.
Attending Lasalle Secondary School but representing Project Athletics Track and Field in Toronto, Blaire Rickard earned a pair of bronze medals, first in the U16 women's shot put with a toss of 12.51m, just one centimetre better than Sophia Basso from London Western.
On the final day, she sailed the hammer 45.58 metres to finish comfortably in third place, though well back of champion Olivia Froemchen from Hamilton (55.59m).
Sudbury sprinter Annabelle Richardson cracked the Team Ontario roster, earning a silver medal in the U16 4 X 100m relay with a combined time of 47.80 seconds, just behind the British Columbia quartet (47.13).
Unfortunately, while the Lo-Ellen Park sophomore ran a heat time of 12.55 in the 100m dash, very much in line with her times at OFSAA and such, she was nosed out by Athea-Faye Tappa of Québec for the eighth and final slot in the final (12.54 seconds).
Mélina Doiron continues to run sub-12 consistently, doing so in both her 100m dash heat (11.99) as well as the final later in the day (11.96), placing 5th in the country in the U18 division.
Other top-eight finishes by the Air Blastoff contingent included Nadia MacDonald (7th - U18 long jump - 5.38 - PB) and Amanda Syncox (7th - U18 400m hurdles - 1:03.41 - PB).
Rounding out the local contingent was Mackenzie Roy (U16 800m - 2:26.47), while North Bay native Andreena Pizzoferrato also represented Air Blastoff, finishing 12th in the U16 100m dash in 12.69 seconds.
