She fell during…
By Mitch Abramson
Keiko Akashi was having one of those days when nothing goes right. A diminutive pole-vaulter from Archbishop Molloy, Akashi was competing in the 77th CHSAA City Championships at Mount St. Michael Academy Saturday when her ankle gave out.
She fell during her second attempt at 8 feet while using a new 12-foot pole to which she was unaccustomed. Her normal 11-foot pole was shelved in favor of a stiffer pole that was supposed to give her the ability to catapult her body higher. Instead, the normally intrepid Akashi, who enjoys flying through the air like a trapeze artist, was having second thoughts after the fall, and her confidence, crucial to a pole-vaulter’s success, was hurting, just like her ankle.
“I was scared of the new pole,” said the resident of Hillcrest who won the indoor city championship this year with a vault of 8 feet, 6 inches and holds the freshman record at Molloy with the same height. “I was afraid I was going to fall and that’s exactly what happened.”
So she did what any spurned person would do. She dumped the new pole and took back her old pole and won the competition by jumping 8 feet, 6 inches, not her best effort this season — she cleared 9 feet, 6 inches at Fordham Prep indoors and did a 9-foot-3-inch jump outdoors during a meet at Mount St. Michael Academy — but she was happy to escape the meet with a win.
It was an improvement from last year’s outdoor result, when she came in third with an upshot of 8 feet. St. Anthony’s came in second on Saturday with 8 feet.
“I was disappointed and I blame myself for not jumping as well as I could,” she said. “I kept pulling on the pole and on the last jump I dropped down on the bar too soon. When I fell I thought I twisted my ankle, so it felt good to come in first. But I would have rather come in second with a 10-foot jump than first with 8’6.”
Her ankle wasn’t the only malfunction that occurred.
An official mistakenly put the crossbar on the wrong peg so one side was 6 inches higher than the other. In an event where competitors swing upside down and twist their bodies like gymnasts do, the distraction of using a new pole and hurting her ankle as well as the strange prospect of clearing a lopsided bar made for a unique day.
“Today was all about winning,” said Jerry Dunne, her coach at Molloy who will now prepare Akashi for the Empire State Games and Junior Olympics this summer.
Relay teams depend on trust, and no group is closer than St. John’s Prep’s 3,200-meter relay team. Their relationship is nearly rooted in the same family tree.
“We’re like sisters. We all care about each other as friends,” said Angelic Zambrana, a senior from Astoria.
On the final leg of the relay, Valerie Mellon found herself all alone. She took the lead on the second lap but was fighting against fatigue and the empty feeling that comes from running in isolation when she received a lift from an unexpected voice.
“I kept hearing one of the coaches screaming from the stands, ‘she’s going to die, you can catch her,’” said Mellon, a senior who may run for Morgan State next fall. “I guess the coach was assuming that I was going to slow down. It would have been embarrassing if she caught me, so I tried to run faster.”
St. John’s Prep won the relay in 9:48.41. Mellon, Zambrana, Clarissa Connor and Naika Branch also won the indoor 3,200-meter relay two years ago and the indoor 800 this year.
In team competition, Kellenberg won the championship with 48 1/2 points. Bishop Loughlin came in second with 33 points. In Queens, Molloy scored 14 points, St. John’s Prep had nine and St. Francis Prep had five.
Reach reporter Mitch Abramson by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or 718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
