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High jump success came early and often for Canada’s Alyx Treasure. She won the Big 12 indoor high jump title as a freshman in 2012, and was a five time All-American by her senior year. In 2014, she had her best-ever finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, taking second place in the high jump, while also winning her first national high jump title in Canada with a personal best mark of 1.89m. She’s now been Canadian national champion four times in a row.
In 2016, overcoming a spate of injuries and despite her ongoing struggles with Crohn’s disease, Treasure hit the Olympic qualifying mark of 1.93m in competition—indeed in Manhattan, Kansas of all places. This was a new personal best, and in Rio, she went one better, jumping 1.94m in the qualifying round to make the final. Unfortunately, she could not get past 1.88m in the final and finished in 17th place.
Despite not making the podium in Rio, she learned from the Olympics. Last year, she took that experience into her debut at the World Championships. Treasure, a late entrant to the field, didn’t make the finals and later admitted she was less prepared than she would have liked.
2018 has been a transition year for Treasure. She recently moved back to Canada and now trains in Toronto. Although Cliff Rovelto is still nominally her coach, the distance means she mostly trains solo now.
This is Treasure’s first-ever appearance at the Commonwealth Games. She was deeply disappointed to have missed out on the Glasgow Games in 2014, and is determined to make up for it this time. She’s ranked 18th in the world right now, and the Gold Coast field is loaded, but with Treasure, there’s always podium potential.
With no qualifying round this time, Treasure is basically into the high jump finals. She’ll be in action around 8:30AM on Saturday. Let’s hope she leaves Australia with some great hardware.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games, also called the XXI Commonwealth Games, are currently in progress at the Gold Coast in Australia. The Games conclude on April 15, 2018.