At a dual meet against the Tenafly High School track team, junior Christakis Nicolaou stepped into an event he had never officially competed in before.
Nicolaou, who had been asking coaches for a chance to compete in the triple jump, finally got his opportunity late in the season. “I’ve kind of been wanting to do it since freshman year,” he said. “This year I hit a point where I was like, I really want to do this.”
Despite never having formally practiced the event, Nicolaou entered the competition confident and opened with a jump of 43’4”, just short of the previous school record of 43’6”. He then improved to 46’9”, and finished his third attempt at 47 feet.
“I thought I was going to maybe just reach 40,” Nicolaou said. “I’d be super happy with that. I was just super shocked. I didn’t know I could do that. Especially my first time with no practice – it was pretty electric.”
The opportunity came unexpectedly during the dual meet. “All the time I would ask to jump and the coaches would say ‘No, you haven’t practiced it,’ which I understood,” he said. Then, heading into the Tenafly meet, Head Coach Peter Dunn suggested the idea of Nicolaou competing in the triple jump, and Nicolaou took the opportunity and ran with it.
Triple Jump Coach Thomas Walsh admitted he did not expect anything close to that performance. “Truthfully, I thought he’d probably foul a few of the jumps, and then if he got one in, maybe he’d go between 38 and 40,” Walsh said. “I never expected him to go as far as he actually wound up jumping.”
Walsh added that he initially thought the result was an error. “The first time I saw the tape, I actually figured it was a mistake. When he jumped it the second time, I realized there was something really, really special happening.”
Although the performance came in a dual meet and did not count as an official record, it changed how the coaching staff viewed Nicolaou’s potential. He was later placed into the lineup for the league meet—an officially recorded competition.
At leagues, competing in the National division (Group B), Nicolaou delivered again, jumping 44’11” to officially break the school record and place third in his division.
Looking ahead, Nicolaou believes this is only the beginning. When asked if he plans to continue triple jumping, Nicolaou said, “100 percent.” After this performance, Nicolaou believes he has placed himself as one of the top jumpers in the state of New Jersey. What started as a last-minute opportunity turned into a breakthrough performance—and possibly the start of a new
At the NJSIAA Sectionals North 1 Groups 2 and 3, Nicolaou placed 1st in long jump with a pr jump of 23′ 5.25″ and 2nd in triple jump with 45′ 5″.