Lions Grab 11 medals on first two days of Canadian championships

The second day of the Canadian Track and Field Championships ended with a bang, even after the lightning storm, as high jumper Steve Nkusi and discus thrower Tim Nedow were each crowned Canadian Champion.
It was a virtually clean sheet which led to Nkusi’s victory in the junior high jump, missing only his first attempt at 1.95m, before clearing each of his remaining heights on the first attempt – putting the pressure on his competitors. After securing the win with his 2.06m clearance, the University of Ottawa student pushed the bar up to a new personal best height of 2.12m – narrowly missing on his final attempt. With the win, Nkusi has now qualified to represent Canada at the Pan American Junior Championships at the end of July.
For Tim Nedow, his victory in Friday night’s senior men’s discus competition marked his third straight national championship in the event and his first since returning to compete with the Ottawa Lions. Nedow’s winning throw of 60.09m came in the fifth round after sitting in second behind Jordan Young of York University until that point. Nedow will compete in his speciality, the shot put Sunday, where he will be going for his third straight national championship as well.
In para events, Lions athletes grabbed a total of nine medals over the first two days, including five gold medals. Grabbing multiple golds was Shanna Boutilier who picked up titles in the para ambulatory 400m and 800m. Boutilier was joined on the 400m podium by teammate Larissa Brown (silver) after Larissa had captured gold in her speciality – the 100m.
The men’s para ambulatory 1500m also brought multiple medals back to Ottawa, led by Paralympic medalist Stuart McGregor who waited until the bell lap before kicking away from teammate Tommy Des Brisay to win in 4:20.30. Des Brisay picked up the silver in 4:29.48. In the 5000m, Jason Dunkerley and guide Joshua Karanja easily captured gold in 16 minutes 20.85 seconds.
The final medal came from wheelchair racer, Joshua Cassidy, who battled tooth and nail to the finish with Alexandre Dupont of Quebec before narrowly edged out of gold – 1:40.91 to 1:41.10.