Wilhelm Wins

Thursday, 13 March 2014 05:14

Branden Wilhelm is at it again, winning a pair of medals in the CIS Track and Field Championships in Edmonton.

Woodstock-native Branden Wilhelm is bringing home a pair of medals from the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Track and Field Championships in held this weekend in Edmonton at the University of Alberta.

The Woodstock Collegiate Institute alumnus and University of Winsdor track and feilder won a gold medal in Men's Pentathlon while earning a silver in Men's High Jump.

Wilhelm scored 3,881 points in pentathlon, to trump Windsor Lancers teammate Jesse Drennan, who placed second with 3,816.

In high jump, Wilhelm's 2.07 metre jump earned him the second place finish.

Wilhelm reflected on the highlights of the weekend competition with Heart FM. ""I think probably the pent long-jump. Getting that third jump in because I had two faults and I had to get a safe jump in. Running down the runway, having that in the back of mind and getting a safe jump in and that was, just kind of a load of my shoulders and I kind of settled into a rhythm and the rest of the events went really well after that."

Branden's parents Lorna and Steve Wilhelm made the trek to watch their son compete. Lorna said she was on the edge of her seat during the long jump portion of the penthlon, after Branden double-faulted on his first two jumps.

"It was kind of stressful for us," Lorna Wilhelm said. "If he triple-faults, that means he gets no points, in which case he doesn't continue."

"I actually couldn't even watch the third jump, it was that stressful for me," she said.

Branden ended up second in the long jump, with a 6.89 metre leap.

"He does us proud," Lorna said.

Rio may not be in the cards for Wilhelm but he does have hopes of competing in the Summer Olympics one day. "That's always kind of been my ultimate dream to go there, not necessarily Rio but just the Olympics in general. Rio I think for me is a bit of a long shot, I have a lot of work to do still to get there. But, this summer staying in Windsor again to keep training and hopefully see some big improvements and the newer events I am just picking up now. Realistically, I think if I work hard enough I could get there one day."