Dunking Phenom "Jus Fly" Darlington Launches His High Jumping Career

You might remember a recent article here on Double Double Thoughts about Justin “Jus Fly” Darlington.

He’s a 20-year-old slam dunking phenom from Ajax, Ontario whom veteran track coach Daniel St-Hilaire is hoping to transform into a high jumping champion.

Well, he’s off to a good start.

In his first outdoor meet this past weekend in St-Laurent, Que., Darlington surprised St-Hilaire by jumping 2.10 metres to qualify for the national championships next month at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. He currently ranks fourth in Canada this season.

“I’m pretty excited,” said St-Hilaire. “He’s ahead of my expectations.”

St-Hilaire had projected that Darlington could jump between 2.10 and 2.20 metres in his first season in the event.

Watch "Jus Fly" Darlington’s winning jump below:

From Youtube...To the olympics

Slam-dunk phenom being courted for high jump

Justin Darlington – a.k.a. "Jus Fly" – is used to making great leaps on the basketball court.

The question is whether the 20-year-old slam-dunking wizard from Ajax, Ontario can make an even greater leap – becoming Canada's superstar high jumper.

Daniel St-Hilaire, an extremely passionate, if not a quirky, veteran coach from Montreal, is convinced he can.

St-Hilaire's scouting methods aren't exactly conventional. It started on the Internet when he punched "slam dunk basketball" into Google. Among other things, he came across hundreds of videos of the 6-foot-4 Darlington in action.



"He was like a lost jewel," said St-Hilaire, who once coached Canadian sprint star Bruny Surin.

What he saw left him awestruck: A kid who could do a cartwheel on the court and dunk in one fluid motion. But, even more impressive, Darlington could get his head above the rim when he took flight.



"My mouth opened for five minutes and my eyes went big and I just froze," said St-Hilaire. "I kept playing the video and going in slow motion and freezing it where his head went above the rim. I thought `I never saw a guy jump that high.'

"And I said to myself `Wow, I wonder if this guy can do high jump.' I became a headhunter. I was like `Where could I meet that guy?'"

It turned out St-Hilaire didn't have to go all that far. He located Darlington on Facebook and found out he was from Ajax. They met for two hours at Pearson International Airport when St-Hilaire was flying home from a track meet in Saskatoon in February.



It turns out that a man cannot live off dunking alone. Darlington has travelled throughout Europe and is currently traveling in Shanghai with Team Flight Brothers, a sort of Harlem Globetrotters of the dunking world, but there isn't a huge amount of money to be made.

"He had no incentive, no target," said St-Hilaire. "I said `Here's your target – 2012 (London Olympics). Jump for Canada, make it big and your life will change. Because now you're recognized as one of the best dunkers, but who cares, nobody knows you.'"

At the end of their airport meeting, St-Hilaire said Darlington had only one question for him: "When do we start, coach?"

The education of Darlington as a high jumper has begun, partly under St-Hilaire in Montreal and also here in Toronto under Gary Lubin, who developed Brampton's Mark Boswell, a two-time world championship medallist. They plan to share the coaching duties.

This has all been a whirlwind for Darlington.

"I wasn't even thinking about the Olympics a year ago," he told The Gazette in Montreal recently. "I was hoping that maybe they would make dunking an Olympic sport."

Darlington is planning to enrol at McGill University for September – his mom, Ann-Marie, wants him to put emphasis on his studies – and train in Montreal under St-Hilaire. His regimen will include two dunking workouts per week so he can maintain that skill.

It's a talent he discovered only two years ago. He never really stood out playing basketball at J. Clark Richardson Collegiate in Ajax, but entered a dunk contest in his last year and wowed everyone with his high-flying skills. Things have taken off since then.



"It sort of snuck up on us," said Ann-Marie Darlington, who was a high jumper in high school. "He was trying to match what the others could do in the gym and he realized he was above most of the guys. It was amazing."

Adds St-Hilaire: "He's a born leaper. The legs are like a mutation."

Darlington has a wide array of videos on You Tube under his nickname "Jus Fly," including some with more than 200,000 views and comments like "That last dunk was absolutely sick!"

Former world hurdles champion Perdita Felicien agrees it will be a neat story if Darlington can pull it off, but adds it won't be easy in such a technical event.

"You can have the raw goods, but to have the discipline to study the event and the sport and to be great that way – that's kind of different," Felicien said. "That's probably the hardest part of it."

St-Hilaire said the key will be teaching Darlington the right technique so that he can develop into a true high jumper and not just a leaper.

St-Hilaire notes Darlington has already jumped 2.01 metres after six technical workouts – equal to the height achieved by the sixth-place finisher at last year's Olympic trials in Windsor (the world record is 2.45 metres.) The coach believes he can get up to 2.10 or 2.20 metres this summer.

St-Hilaire already has a golden glint in his eyes as he thinks toward the 2012 London Olympics. He points to Donald Thomas of the Bahamas, who won at the 2007 world championships, less than two years after switching to track from basketball.

"I feel Justin has more potential," said St-Hilaire.

Loved ones seek help in finding T.O. woman missing in Hong Kong

The sisters of a missing Toronto woman are reaching out to the city’s Chinese community in hopes of finding their sibling who was last seen in Hong Kong.

“It’s frustrating not knowing where she is (or) if she’s safe,” said younger sister, Sossy Ashekian, 28, who just returned from a search expedition in Hong Kong on Saturday.

Her sister, Ani Ashekian, 30, left Toronto for Beijing on Oct. 24 and was in contact with family members regularly through phone and e-mail until early November when she stopped sending and returning messages.

“It’s not in her character to not contact her family and that’s why we know she needs help,” Sossy said at a news conference at the Star Walk Chinese Buffet in Scarborough.

“She called my mom every day. My mom lives in Windsor, she lives in Toronto. It’s not like her to do that and leave my mom not knowing,” said older sister, Rosie Kampstra, 33.

The last time they heard from their sister was Nov. 10, when she text messaged to wish her niece a happy birthday.

The Toronto paralegal was travelling around Asia alone and was expected to finish her trip in New Delhi for a yoga retreat, but Ashekian never boarded her return flight to Toronto on Dec. 15.

The story has been well-publicized in Chinese media, especially when Sossy and Ani’s boyfriend, Wendell Walsh, travelled to the territory in hopes of finding her. There is a committed group of volunteers who have been handing out leaflets daily in the densely populated city. During Sossy’s trip, 3,000 flyers were distributed.

They have increased their reward from $8,000 to $15,000.

There were several sightings of the missing woman in early December. One major lead was video surveillance of a nervous woman — believed to be Ani — withdrawing funds from an ATM machine at the Causeway Bay MTR Station.

Her sisters say she often uses her credit card when travelling, but there were no transactions on her card since she went missing. The family filed a request to her bank before Christmas to see if there was activity but they have been blocked because of confidentiality reasons.

The case is now being handled by Hong Kong police, foreign affairs and Toronto Police.

Scarborough-Agincourt MP, Jim Karyglannis, was also present said he will be speaking with Indian consulars on his trade mission to India this week to see if Ashekian has crossed the border, though her passport suggests she is still in Hong Kong.

“I will be reaching into my Chinese community ... (asking them) to reach back home and in China and Hong Kong and assist this family and make sure we find Ani,” he said.

The boyfriend of the Toronto woman Wendell Walsh, vowed he will not give up until she returns home safely.

"It's terrifying to have someone that you love missing, but we're staying hopeful. We're filled with hope, and I will stay filled with hope until she returns safely," Wenddell Walsh told CTV's Canada AM.

The family has also started a trust fund to pay for the cost of a private investigation, and is offering a reward for information on her whereabouts.

Walsh said he worked with local police while in Hong Kong, and together they determined Ashekian had used an ATM in Causeway Bay, a shopping district, on the same day she sent the text message, Nov. 10.

Security camera footage from the ATM shows Ashekian making the withdrawal, he said.

According to some reports, Ashekian withdrew two large cash advances from her account on the last day she was heard from.

Walsh said there have been no other reported sightings of Ashekian.

He is at a loss as to explain what may have happened to his girlfriend.

"It's definitely not in her character," Walsh said.

"Her character is actually the opposite. She's very responsible, very well travelled and on all of her other journeys she's kept in close contact with her family. Her family is very important to her."

The family has also set up a website, with information about Ani, as well as posting pictures of her on the site, the address for the website is http://www.findani.com/ in the hopes of drawing further widespread attention to the case, A facebook group has also been setup for Ani, You can join by going to it directly here. To find out how you can help out, email findani@gmail.com.