Young legend grows as Olympians’ daughter smashes OFSAA record

Julia Tunks is now chasing the feats of only one female discus thrower in Canadian high school history. Herself.

The 16-year-old Oakridge star smashed Trinity Tutti’s five-year-old OFSAA senior women’s record of 52.77 metres with a mighty 55.62m effort on her sixth and final attempt at the provincial high school track and field championships Saturday afternoon in Ottawa.

She topped her own Canadian interscholastic record of 53.72 from last year, when she was still in Grade 10. Kincardine’s Jasmine Broere took the silver medal Saturday with a 39.39m throw.

Don’t expect Tunks’ record to have much of a shelf life. She will be back next year, in Grade 12, to break it again.

“I was trying to go for all the meet records, which I accomplished,” Tunks said. “I’ll be chasing mine (now). I’m going for progression and consistency. It wasn’t what I wanted to throw in both events (she won the shot put Friday with a 14.02m toss) but it was close. It was solid. I’m happy with it and know I have a lot more coming for this outdoor season.”

It’s best not to tick off the daughter of two Olympic throwers, either. Her big effort came after the tools of her trade were inspected and handled by meet officials throughout the competition.

“I was getting a hard time from the officials the whole time,” she said. “They kept taking my discs and it was making me angry. They said they might have a nick or dent in them, but they were fine. It was nice to come back and make a few big throws after that was going on to make me feel good about myself and the meet.”

Tunks is the daughter of Londoner Jason Tunks, a three-time Olympian in the discus. He’s also been her coach. Her mother, Lieja Koeman, went to two Olympics for shot put.

Tunks will return home to train for the next month-and-a-half before competing at nationals in July and is expected to make the Canadian Pan Am U20 team in early August.

“She broke all those records and they’re all going to get broken again,” Oaks coach Dave Collins said. “I was happy for Julia. She was very excited and was definitely enjoying the moment.”

The Tunks victory highlighted the closing of a superb meet by London and area athletes. In division standings, Banting finished second in senior boys (21 points), Oakridge was third in senior women (28), the Broncos tied with Kitchener Resurrection for second in junior boys (26) while A.B. Lucas (28) went 1-2 in the novice girls division with Mother Teresa (24) and Medway ranked second in novice boys (35).

Vikings rising star Sarah Jaquith closed by winning the novice women’s 300m hurdles (44.55 seconds) and Medway’s Kailer Jenny won the novice men’s race (41.74). London Central’s Heath McAllister (8:18.57) and Ian McAllister (8:34.08) were first and third respectively in the senior men’s 3000m while Sarnia Northern’s Gabby Jones won the women’s side (9:44.00).

Medway’s Ryan Georgeson won the novice boys 800m (1:59.99), Winston Morgan, Jr., of Woodstock College Ave. was first in the senior men’s 200m dash (21.38) and Libby McCurdy of St. Thomas St. Joe’s continued the local scene’s medal-mining in pole vault by winning the junior women’s division(3.25m).

“It was a great OFSAA meet for London,” Collins said. “The numbers for track are larger than it was pre-Covid and the results are somewhat shocking because these kids took two years off and are setting records.

“It’s pretty neat to see the bounce back (after the pandemic).”

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