Surrey’s Praise Aniamaka soared to a Canadian record in triple jump last weekend.
The Pacific Academy graduate, now a freshman with the Purdue track & field team in Indiana, jumped 15.89 metres on Saturday (Jan. 29), breaking the U20 Canadian Triple Jump record of 15.78m set by Patrick Hanna in 2015.
The jump was Aniamaka’s first of the day at the Rod McCravy Track and Field Invitational meet in Lexington, Kentucky. With it, he moved up to sixth on Purdue’s all-time list.
“Aniamaka bested his previous PR (personal record) of 15.75m, which was No. 7 at Purdue,” notes a news release posted to purduesports.com.
“Aniamaka was fourth overall in the event and just behind (Purdue teammate Tamar) Greene, who was third thanks to a season-best jump of 15.95m on his sixth and final attempt. Greene and Aniamaka notched the second- and third-best marks in the Big Ten this season.”
When not at university with fellow Boilermakers, Aniamaka trains in the offseason with the Thunderbirds Track & Field Club at the Surrey campus, under coach Iuliana Kroeger.
A Canadian U-20 record, two top-10 marks in school history and three top-3 finishes highlighted today's action at UK and IU.
— Purdue Track & Field / Cross Country (@PurdueTrackXC) January 30, 2022
Recap: https://t.co/4AoRE9paiK#BoilerUp 🚂
• RELATED STORY: Record-setting Surrey athlete triple-jumps his way onto Purdue track team.
At Purdue’s West Lafayette campus, the 2003-born Aniamaka is studying integrated business and engineering. In high school, he set the U18 Canadian indoor triple jump record with a mark of 15 meters, was a three-time provincial champion in the triple jump and provincial runner-up three times in the 300-metre hurdles.
“Praise is the No. 1 junior triple jumper in Canada,” Purdue track coach Norbert Elliott said in an announcement posted to purduesports.com back in 2020. “He was highly recruited and is an excellent student. He chose Purdue because of our strong engineering program and the recent triple jump success that we’ve had with Jah Strange and Tamar Greene, both recent NCAA Championships qualifiers. Praise exhibits all the raw tools necessary to be a really good triple jumper, and we are excited to have him come to Purdue.”
Aniamaka talks about his journey to Purdue in a video posted to Streamline Athletes’ YouTube channel last August.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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