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Christodoulou has 2020 Olympics in his crosshairs

PHOTO COURTESY CLAUDE ROUSSEL SPEARHEADING HIS OLYMPIC CAMPAIGN: William Christodoulou, seen here at the 2014 Canadian Junior Track and Field Championships, is looking to reach his goal of representing Canada in javelin at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
PHOTO COURTESY CLAUDE ROUSSEL
SPEARHEADING HIS OLYMPIC CAMPAIGN: William Christodoulou, seen here at the 2014 Canadian Junior Track and Field Championships, is looking to reach his goal of representing Canada in javelin at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Crescent alum wins gold in javelin at provincial and national junior levels

Crescent School alum William Christodoulou is on point for his goal of reaching the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.

The 18-year-old North Toronto native is coming off a very successful summer season on the javelin circuit, with a gold medal performance at the provincial championships in Ottawa and another at the nationals in Ste-Therese, Que.

When the Town Crier first caught up with him in 2010, the then-Grade 9 student was just starting to become passionate about his field sport. Now he’s representing the University of Western Ontario at a higher level.

“I told my coach this year that my goal was to win nationals,” Christodoulou said, on the phone from London, Ont. “My goal was to come out and throw the best at nationals, and win it.

“[Coach Sylvia Kontra] was supportive of it, and said, ‘Okay let’s see you do it then’.”

His spearheading of his own goals led him to victory, and quite early in the meet, as he had top spot — almost eight metres ahead of his closest opponent, Carter Wilson of Winnipeg.

“I was winning the meet with a throw of 60.25 metres, and the next guy was around 56,” Christodoulou said. “Then on my final throw I threw a 65.51 and ended up beating the competition by nine metres.

“It was that little extra bit that achieved my goal of getting a big throw like that as well.”

With his success comes new, short-term goals. He told another of his coaches, John Allen, that he wants to step up his game and to be able to hit the 70-metre mark by next year.

“Him and I are deciding to take the training to the next level, so more intense training, bigger lifting, more time together kind of thing,” Christodoulou said, adding he wants to compete abroad — including at the 2017 Pan Am Games — while representing Western.

“Little stepping stones that can help me get to that final goal of 2020,” he said.

Even though he’s still in the twilight of his teen years, Christodoulou is not afraid of mixing it up with some of the older javelin throwers.

“As a young guy competing with the big boy group, it would be nice to finish in the top five in the country,” he said.

For all his hard work, Christodoulou will be attending Athletics Ontario’s annual awards gala in Toronto on Sept. 27.

Christodoulou’s numbers (on six throws)

Provincial Results (Ottawa, July 19-20)
55.15m | FOUL | 53.92m | 51.65m | FOUL | 56.25m

National Results (Ste-Therese, Que. July 4-6)
49.76m | 56.82m | 58.51m | 60.25m | 54.53m | 65.51m

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