Alyx Treasure has a new title to add to her growing list of accomplishments as a high jumper.
She's now a senior Canadian champion.
Treasure took care of that Friday at the Canadian track and field championships in Moncton, N.B.,where she won the gold medal with a personal-best jump of 1.89 metres (six-foot-two-and-half), just three centimetres short of the 1.93m Olympic standard.
Treasure, 22, cleared the bar with her second attempt and came within a grazed calf muscle of reaching the 1.93m mark. Jillian Drouin of Sarnia, Ont., won silver at 1.86m, while Brianne Thiesen-Eaton of Humboldt, Sask., the Canadian heptathlon record holder, claimed bronze with a jump of 1.83m.
"Her progress has been pretty remarkable lately and it bodes well for down the road," said Tom Masich, Treasure's longtime coach with the Prince George Track and Field Club. "Her best jump previously [before the NCAA finals] had been 1.83m.
"A centimetre doesn't sound like a lot but when you're raising your body in the air it takes a lot of technique and a lot of power and she's raised her personal best by six centimetres this year."
Treasure, a D.P. Todd secondary school graduate now in her junior year at the University of Kansas, won silver at the NCAA outdoor championships June 15 in Eugene, Ore., where she reached 1.86m.
"She's improved her personal best by centimetres at three meets in a row," said Masich. "That comes from being more mature in your approach and analyzing yourself and visualizing what you have to do before you jump to get you over that bar. She was jumping against some good girls today at nationals."
Treasure has now qualified for the national team at the North American, Central Americana and Caribbean under-23 track and field championships in Kamloops, Aug. 8-10.
"We are so excited," said Alyx's mom, Cindy Treasure, who watched her jump live on the moncton2014.ca website. "I couldn't believe it. I went home at lunch from work to watch it and watched my girl jump to a gold medal online."
The Commonwealth Games standard is 1.88m but Treasure won't get to compete in this year's Games July 23-Aug. 4 in Glasgow, Scotland, because the Canadian team has already been picked.
Several Prince George Track and Field Club and Athletics North club athletes will be in Kelowna next weekend for the Jack Brow Invitational meet, which started Friday and wraps up Sunday.
