Grade 12 Riverside athlete, Jarrett Chong, has recently been named one of the three nominees for the Sport BC High School Male Athlete of the Year. Chong’s main sport is track and field, competing in the javelin, shotput and discus. Due to his athletic accomplishments, he has received offers from many different universities and colleges, and he is currently deciding between UBC and SFU. In the future, Chong plans to see if he can make it to Division One or not and then decide what path he wants to go with.
“Riverside is a triple A (AAA) school for track and field. There are about one hundred triple A schools, so there’s a lot of throwers that he (Jarrett) is competing against. He is very elite in his specific sport. They chose him over soccer players, basketball players and all the other sports. He is in a very competitive field, however, he has been very successful, as he has always competed up a level. So now that he’s competing against boys that are his age, he’s got a lot of potential this year,” said Riverside teacher, Mr. Jeremy Neufeld.
Throughout Chong’s time at Riverside, he has always been a very successful athlete. Chong won the 2018 BC provincial high school championships for the javelin. Three weeks after the provincials, at the Pacific Invitational meet in Langley, he threw the 700g javelin 66.82 meters, which exceeds the Youth Olympic standard.
“It feels good to be nominated for an award of this scale. I started javelin when I was ten, worked my way up from there, and I am still hoping to make my way to more awards. But I’m not getting my hopes up yet. A nomination (for the High School Male Athlete of the Year award) is great, but it’s not an award yet. Until I win it, it’s not significant enough,” said Chong.
The Sport BC Athlete of the Year awards, in which Chong is one of three nominees for High School Male Athlete of the Year, will be held on Wednesday, March 13, at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel in Vancouver.
