York University Lions’ track and field athlete David McKay won a gold medal July 21 at the World Deaf Athletics Championships at Varsity Centre on the campus of the University of Toronto.
McKay represented Canada in the men’s pole vault competition. His jump of 4.90 metres not only won gold, but also set a new championship record. The previous record of 4.40 metres was set four years ago by Kotaro Takehana of Japan at the inaugural event in Turkey. Click here to watch a video of McKay’s winning jump.
David McKay (centre) on the podium at the World Deaf Athletics Championships
McKay is coming off a successful rookie season with the Lions. He won the Akron Invitational in Akron, Ohio, with a jump of 4.75 metres in early February, and at the end of the month was crowned the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) champion with a personal-best jump of 5.00 metres, which was 25 centimetres above his previous best mark. With that jump he also earned OUA first-team all-star honours and was named the OUA’s male rookie of the year following the meet.
He wrapped up his indoor competitive season with a seventh-place finish at the Canadian Interuniversity Sports championships in Winnipeg and in March was named York’s male rookie of the year.
The World Deaf Athletics Championships was McKay’s final competition of the summer.