The 2013 CIS Championships kick off this afternoon in Edmonton where the University of Ottawa Gee Gees will represented by six men and five women. At last year’s championships, the men finished fifth with 63 pts, while the women placed 13th with 20pts.
Leading the men this year will be veteran and team captain Michael Robertson. For Robertson, this will be his final CIS competition and he will undoubtedly be looking to add to his collection of five medals, including golds from both the 4x200m and 4x400m relays last year. He is slated to compete in the both relays again as well as the 300m, where he took home silver last year.
Robertson will be joined by the three gentlemen who helped him bring home gold last year, Oluwasegun Makinde, Devin Biocchi and Toluwalope Makinde. Both Oluwasegun and Devin will join Michael in the 300m, where the trio enter the meet all within the top four ranks. Oluwasegun will also be contesting the 60m hurdles and the flat 60m.
Rounding out the men’s team will be Gabriel Tesfaye and Hubert Chevrette-Belisle. Tesfaye will be run the 60m hurdles and is also a member of the relay pools. Chevrette-Belisle will join his two teammates in the hurdles Friday night, but he will compete in the gruelling five event pentathlon Thursday afternoon.
The women will be led by the young faces of rookie Emma Galbraith and sophomore Devyani Biswal, the only two Gee-Gees to enter the competition ranked in a medal position.
Galbraith will contest both the 1000m and 1500m after dropping the 600m following the OUA Championships. Emma enters the meet on the strength of her best ever 1500m last week in Ottawa as she set a uOttawa record of 4:20.23. The 1000m will take place Friday night with the 1500m going Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Biswal has continued to improve week in and week out this season, culminating in her a personal best run of 8.57 seconds to finish third at the OUA Championships two weeks ago. Incidentally, that mark also has her ranked third in the CIS and she will need to be in top form to hold on to that spot in Friday’s finals.
Rounding out the women’s team will be Sarah de Carufel, who will run the 60m this evening. The soccer player turned sprinter, enters the competition ranked seventh. De Carufel and Biswal will also team up with Charlotte Gardner and Gift Okankwu in the 4x200m heats this evening. Galbraith with replace Biswal in the 4x400m relay finals on Saturday.
You can catch all the CIS action live from Edmonton on CIS-SIC.tv
