SAN DIEGO (FOX 5) — Fresh off a CIF championship win, one El Camino triple jumper has set his eyes on the next prize: best in California.
“I kind of feel like triple jump is so unique in itself,” said Zeshuan Daley, a rising senior. “Everyone knows about 100 and all the other events like long jump. But if you ask someone to triple jump, they can’t just go out and triple jump like that.”
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A lot of sports fans might have already heard of the triple jump, but they may not know much about its specifics. It happens in three phases: a hop, a skip and a jump. Sounds simple, but Daley says it is a lot harder than it seems.
“It’s really hard. Hard on the body and the technique with it,” Daley explained. “You have to have everything perfect. If you mess up one of the phases, everything is thrown off.”
The 17-year-old first tried the event as a freshman. This season, he took first place at the CIF championship.
“I was happy, I was real joyful,” Daley said of the moment. “I had one of my friends, from another school, right next to me. He sent me a picture later. Saying, ‘this was last year, crazy how we went from bottom of our league, to top 3 in San Diego county.”