Schultz comes up silver at Gold Coast

What were you doing when you were a 19-year old in college? Working hard at school, maybe having some mildly irresponsible fun?

Well, Nina Schultz is better than you, and now she’s proved she’s better than a whole lot of world-class athletes too.

Early this morning, Schultz ran a blazing 2:17.40 to finish second in her heat of the 800m, the final event of the women’s heptathlon at the Commonwealth Games. That was a new personal best and put her in fourth place in the 800m overall, just 122 points behind England’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson. But more importantly, the finish cemented Schultz’s spot on the scoreboard and the medals podium.

With a new personal best total score of 6133 points, Schultz took home the silver medal in her first Commonwealth Games.

Although she didn’t finish first in any of the events, she was the picture of consistency, finishing no worse than fifth in one event (javelin) and coming in second in the long jump and third in the 100H and high jump events. In the process, she set new personal best marks in the 100H (13.47s), 200m (25.02s), long jump (6.19m), and in the 800m (2:17.40).

At 19, Schultz is the youngest member of Canada’s contingent at the Gold Coast, and was among the youngest in the heptathlon field. But she displayed steadiness and skill well beyond her years, and you get the sense this is only the beginning for Schultz.

Congratulations, Nina! You’re going places and your small army of purple fans hope to go there with you!