Mike Mason hopes Diamond League season debut sets tone for possible 4th Olympics
Fellow Canadians Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown to square off in 200m at Shanghai
As a veteran coach, Jeff Huntoon can sense a podium finish in the making, and he was certain Canadian high jumper Mike Mason was on track to medal at a pair of major international championships the last two years.
At track and field worlds in 2017, Mason cleared 2.17, 2.22 and 2.26 metres on his first attempt before he "lost focus" and missed all three chances at 2.29, failing to qualify for the final in London.
"It gutted me that he didn't make it out of prelims because that was a really big opportunity for Mike to medal," Huntoon recalls as the 32-year-old Mason prepared to make his Diamond League season debut in Shanghai on May 18.
"He ends up sixth but [a month] later jumps 2.32 [in Victoria] that would have won at Commonwealth," says Huntoon. "A lot of it is controlling the emotions on the day."
'A work in progress'
Huntoon's first encounter with Mason was at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland as jumps coach with Team Canada. He also assisted Mason at the 2015 Pan Am Games when the high jumper was coached full-time by Ziggy Szelagowicz.
"Mike was very good at one-offs … but when you get to the major championships, it's always a prelim and a final," says Huntoon, who joined Mason full-time in the fall of 2016. "One of the things I respected about Derek [Drouin] and some of the athletes I've coached in the past is they were prepared for both rounds. And you have to be prepared for multiple peaks in a season.
"It's still a work in progress with Mike and we haven't got over the hump."
WATCH | Mike Mason clears 2.26 metres in Brussels:
Unlike previous years, Mason has maintained his fitness late in a season under Huntoon and strength and conditioning coach Dale Lablans, and is stronger and healthier than at any time in his career following chronic hamstring woes up to and including the 2016 season.
"I knew I needed to get healthy and stronger in a lot of areas if I wanted to compete at a high level and was serious about going to a fourth Olympics," says Mason, a native of Nanoose Bay, B.C., whose typical training week includes two jump practices, two running workouts and three days of lifting weights.
The mental game is now Mason's challenge. Staying relaxed, calm and "in the moment" is a daily reminder to remain controlled in his approach on the runway to get in proper position for take-off.
Mike does really good when he doesn't have an opportunity to sit and get into his head.— High jump coach Jeff Huntoon on athlete Mike Mason and the mental challenges of the sport
"I give him mental scenarios during practice," says Huntoon. "Two weeks ago, he took 10 jumps and on the last three he envisioned the bar at 2.27, 2.29 and 2.31. What are your emotions? What's the conversation you're having in your head?
Huntoon says it was a "calm and collected" Mason who jumped a 2019 world-leading 2.31 on April 5 at the Sam Adams Invitational in Santa Barbara, Calif., breaking Drouin's Thorrington Field stadium record of 2.28 from 2017.
"Mike does really good when he doesn't have an opportunity to sit and get into his head," Huntoon says. "But the reality is, there are going to be more competitors at 2.26, 2.29, 2.31 and you can't jump right away. What's your mindset as you're sitting? When your name gets called, try to replicate the jump you had at 2.24 when you made it by a mile."
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