The Ottawa Lions are pleased to announce three club members have been nominated by Athletics Canada to represent Canada at the upcoming World University Games (FISU) in Kazan, Russia, July 6 to 17.
Headlining the list are 2012 London Olympians Melissa Bishop and Oluwasegun Makinde. This will be Bishop’s first time representing Canada at FISU, after narrowly missing out on qualification for the 2010 Games. This year, the Eganville native has produced a best time 2:01.54 for 800m in winning last Friday’s Ponce Invitational Grand Prix in Puerto Rico. Back in April, she led a Canadian record setting 4x800m team at the Penn Relays. Prior to heading to Russia, Melissa is scheduled to race at the Toronto International Track and Field Games June 11th as well as the Canadian Championships in Moncton, June 20 to 23.
For Makinde, this will be his second time attending the FISU Championships as the University of Ottawa student finished fifth in the 200m in 2010. An alternate on last year’s Olympic 4x100m relay team, Makinde will be looking to replicate the performance level he showed two years ago in Shenzhen, China where he recorded three personal bests on his way to the final. The Colonel By grad’s has recorded a best time this year of 20.78 seconds, set two weeks ago in North Carolina.
Rounding out the Lions contingent is decathlete Patrick Arbour who has been nominated to his first world championship team. Arbour is having a breakthrough season in the decathlon after opening up with a 500 plus point personal best at a competition in Tucson last month. His early season score of 7593 points currently ranks him tenth all-time in Canada. In preparation for Kazan, Arbour will be representing Canada at next weekend’s Panamerican Combined Events Cup here in Ottawa before heading to Nationals next month.
Also named to the Canadian team were two former Lions members, Alicia Brown in the 400m and Tim Nedow in the shot put.
