NEW WESTMINSTER — When Raquel Tjernagel competed in a pair of high-performance track meets in California earlier this month, she put forth a trio of performances that combined, represented the most significant weekend in the history of Canadian girls high school sprinting.
Tjernagel, a senior at New Westminster Secondary who runs for the Coquitlam Cheetahs, not only set personal bests in the 400-, 200- and 100-metre races, she established new international, national and provincial standards at the three distances.
Front and centre was her April 17 performance in the 400 metres at the Brian Clay Invite at Azusa, Cal., where Tjernagel finished in 52.52 seconds, the fastest time by a female under 20 in the world this season. Tjernagel, who finished second in the race to Olympian Geisha Coutinho of Brazil (51.57), had entered the race with a personal-best time of 54.26 seconds. No Canadian female, regardless of age, has run a faster 400 metres this season.
At the same meet, Tjernagel set a new personal best in the 200 metres (23.34 seconds), and the next day at the Long Beach State invite, clocked a sizzling, personal-best 11.58 seconds in the 100 metres.
The totality of the weekend?
Tjernagel’s times in the 200- and 400-metres, according to her coach Tara Self, are new Canadian interscholastic records, meaning no high school female in this country’s history has run faster times during her actual high school season of competition.
As well, all three of Tjernagel’s times from the California swing are better than the existing Subway B.C. high school meet championship meet records, set in 2003 by Little Flower Academy’s Yvonne Mensah and Magee’s Camille Noel in 1992 (full chart below).
“I was caught off guard,” said Self. “(Raquel) is quite a ways ahead of where we anticipated for this time of the year. We went down to California thinking that if she can get in the 53.5 area (in the 400), that would be amazing. But she went in and jumped right over that. So you’re just left saying ‘Oh, OK, so where do we go from here?’”
Especially when you’re still just 17, and your times already have you knocking on the door of Olympic standards for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. The standards released April 15 by the IAAF are 23.20 seconds for the 200 metres and 52.0 for the 400 metres.
“I don’t want to jump the gun too much,” said Tjernagel. “I like to take it week by week, and keep training hard. And I don’t want to change anything because obviously something is working. I am quite excited.”
Tjernagel has long been a leading lady at the high school provincials. She has won the senior 200 metres the past two seasons and last June also won the 100 metres. Last summer she posted the 12th-best time in the 200 metres (23.75) at the World Junior championships in Eugene, Ore.
“The Olympics for 2020 seemed in her wheelhouse,” continued Self, “but right now she is so close to next year, which I wasn’t expecting. I think she can, but we’re not going to put the cart in front of the horse.”
Besides, there is so much on Tjernagel’s daily docket to deal with, not the least of which is deciding where she will attend and compete as a university student-athlete next season.
Tjernagel had already garnered the attention of some of the best programs in NCAA Div. 1, but since returning from California two weekends ago, she has become the object of a recruiting war.
So is it going to be, among her many suitors, perhaps Oregon, UCLA, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington or Southern Cal? And the list goes on.
“I just feel so blessed that all of this opportunity has been given to me,” Tjernagel said. “I still have a few more visits and I am not going to rush it. I am going to keep calm, and find a place with good coaches and good teammates that support each other.”
ROYAL CITY RUSH
(A look at how New Westminster Hyacks’ senior Raquel Tjernagel’s best times (in seconds) compare to other landmarks)
100 metres
11.64 — B.C. high school meet record set by Little Flower’s Yvonne Mensah in 2003
11.58 — Tjernagel’s personal best
11.32 — 2016 Olympic standard
200 metres
23.92 — B.C. high school meet record set by Little Flower’s Yvonne Mensah in 2003
23.34 — Tjernagel’s personal best
23.20 — 2016 Olympic standard
400 metres
53.66 — B.C. high school meet record set by Magee’s Camille Noel in 1992
52.52 — Tjernagel’s personal best
52.00 — 2016 Olympic standard
