Former Dixon High Student Marcus Gelpi Zooms In On The Paris Olympics, Becomes The First Junior College Athlete To Win Gold At Stanford
Former Dixon High Student Marcus Gelpi Zooms In On The Paris Olympics, Becomes The First Junior College Athlete To Win Gold At Stanford
Special Report By Ben Edokpayi ©
Dixon, CA — Two athletes — Marcus Gelpi, a Diablo Valley College Student, who graduated from Dixon High in 2020 and Udodi Onwuzurike, were the talk of Track and Field aficionados in the Silicon Valley after outstanding personal bests and records at the Stanford Invitational between April 1–3 at Cobb Track and Angell Field.
Gelpi, who stands at 6’3” cleared a height of 7’ 1” with his trademark Fosbury Flop and calmness on the bar approach, to achieve the extraordinary accomplishment of the first Jr College athlete to ever take home gold at this event. https://www.britannica.com/sports/Fosbury-flop
When considered, that is quite an accomplishment from a previous best height at Dixon High, 6 feet, 6 inches, a school record which he set at the Masters CIF State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High School in Clovis, as a Junior in 2019.
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/united-states/marcus-gelpi-14970125
The High Jump Competition Field At The Stanford Invitational in 2022.
1. Marcus Gelpi — 7' 1 Diablo Valley
2. Shallamar Poole 6' 8.75 CS Fullerton
3. Kyle Jankans 6' 8.75 San Jose State
4. Jai Williams 6' 6.75 UC Berkeley
5. Kailen Smith — 6' 6.75 Cal Poly Pomona
5. Joshua Darwin 6' 6.75 North Dakota State
7. Elijah Roberts 6' 4.75 Academy of Art Univ
The other Stanford highlight was a focus on Freshman Udodi Onwuzurike who eclipsed the Cal relay anchor with a nod at the tape to win the men’s 4x100m race with a time of 40.12 seconds after dominating the sprint events.
Udodi is from West Bloomfield Township, Mich and is on pace to compete for the Nigerian or American team at the Paris Olympics. https://olympics.com/ioc/paris-2024 https://gostanford.com/sports/track-and-field/roster/udodi-onwuzurike/18689 Onwuzurike is another great example of excellent students with Nigerian heritage from Stanford. They include the Ogwumike sisters Nneka and Chiney and my nephew Usua Amanam, A Siebel Scholar, Ph.D. Earth Sciences (And A Former NASA Intern) with the Key Interception at the 2012 Rose Bowl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR86liAlcNE
I was a Communications Consultant for his Father, a Department of Defense Contractor in Afghanistan. https://www.defense.gov/
Well After a two year hiatus because of Covid 19 restrictions,track stars from across the world bloomed at the Stanford U meet, which will be followed later this month by the Mount Sac Relays and Beach Invitationals.
Gelpi, a dual citizen, who plans to compete for Puerto Rico (His Mother is from Dixon, California) in the 2024 Paris Olympics will be at both events where he hopes to improve on his record setting jump.
“I’m excited for this month’s meets because they are arguably the most competitive competitions I’ve been in yet! I’ll be going against plenty of Pros and elite College jumpers. It will be a great competition!” he said of two important events on the Track and Field Calendar.
Later on in the summer he will elevate his plans to compete for Puerto Rico in Paris at two meets scheduled in June; the National Championships in San Juan and the NACAC invitational in Miramar Florida.
Of course Puerto Rico’s most popular track and Field athlete Jasmine Camacho Quinn, who won the 110 Gold Medal at the Japan Olympics will be at both events.
Jasmine ran track at University of Kentucky with Fairfield High School product Daje Pugh.
https://ukathletics.com/sports/track-and-field/roster/daje-pugh/3124
https://olympics.com/ioc/overview
Daje’s father, who retired from the US Air Force at Travis, is a popular local coach.
His Vallejo-based B-Sharp Track Club has brought honor to Solano County through medals from junior athletes and extracurricular activities through a music academy. The B-Sharp roster include my son who won National Championships between 2003 and 2008 at the AAU in Norfolk, Virginia; Junior Olympics in Miami and at Hayward Field in Oregon where Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, and Fairfield native Daje Pugh as well as English Gardner, Tori Bowie and Bianca Knight who anchored the nation’s 4X100 team to a World record at the 2012 London Olympics were present.
Here is how Marcus Gelpi weighed in on Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, one of the best Hurdlers ever whose grace and fluidity over the hurdles reminds of the era of Edwin Moses “Being around somebody like Jasmine Camacho Quinn is like being around Michael Jordan to me. She’s done unbelievable things, she’s conquered unbearable circumstances and she’s remained herself through all these years of success and notoriety. Jasmine is such a fun and loving person to be around and her accomplishments definitely push me to want to compete for my country as best as I can one day, who knows maybe one day I’ll bring back a gold medal like she did! “
About the Island nation which received negative press after President Donald Trump’s Hurricane Maria 2017 Paper towel throwing incident, here is what the Conscientious and Clean Dixon native said “ I want to be part of the movement to bring hope to Puerto Rico with qualification for the Paris Olympics.” https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-hurricane-maria-20180920-story.html
https://www.nola.com/opinions/article_2208d492-7a67-5f21-b5b6-6bdeb7e5e454.html
Born in 1996 Jasmine Camacho Quinn became the second Puerto Rican ever to win a gold medal while representing Puerto Rico at the Japan Olympics, a feat which was one of the special highlights in Tokyo. In the semi-finals, Camacho-Quinn set her personal best and Olympic record. Camacho-Quinn participated at the 2016 Rio Olympics in her specialty event, achieving 12.70 seconds in the heats, a time that would have secured her fifth place in the final. However, she was disqualified in the semi-finals after hitting a hurdle.
On Sunday April 9th Jasmine Camacho-Quinn the Olympic Champion will be competing at the Continental Tour Gold Level in Hamilton, Bermuda.
https://www.athletic.net/result/R3iEz86F1toYzPqt8/
On his Specialty Events: “At Dixon High School I did high jump and long jump.
My long jump isn’t the best, I’ve only jumped a little over 20 feet. And yes the Fosbury Flop is the best technique for me, it just makes sense scientifically. No, I have not jumped against Vashti Cunningham. I don’t really have any jumpers that inspire me, I’m kind of new to this stuff so I just try to have fun with it instead of imitating somebody else.”
On The Japan Olympics: “No I wasn’t at the trials for the Tokyo Olympics, I did compete in the Puerto Rico national championships though and took gold but my best wasn’t good enough for the Olympic Games.”
On Who Has Been Instrumental To His Success: “My coach definitely has been instrumental in my success. His name Is Ed Miller and he’s a great part of the reason that I’m where I am today!”
On his Workout Schedule: “Recently I’ve added to my training schedule. I used to train 4 days a week but now I train every day, even on my off days I’ll do some sort of core exercise or weightlifting.
On his Chances Of Making The Paris Olympics: “On my current standards I’m not as close to qualifying to the next Olympics as I’d hope to be, but I’ve also only been doing this for 3 years now and I have a lot to learn and improve on. So where I’m at is a good place in achieving my goals.
This article is the front page lead in the 4/8/2022 Dixon Tribune edition.
