McCulloch and Christie-Galloway shine in Colombia

This week’s IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia featured two young Lion athletes looking to measure themselves against the world’s best. Shona McColloch and Keira Christie-Galloway both hit the track running Wednesday. Christie-Galloway kicked things off in the heats of the girls 100m hurdles. Running in the fifth and final heat, Keira put forth the best effort of her life, crossing the line in 13.63 seconds to finish second and advance to the semi-finals.
Running in Thursday’s semi-finals, Christie-Galloway was unable to replicate her performance of the day before, posting a time of 13.71 seconds and finishing sixth in her heat. She would not advance, finishing 19th overall. “I didn’t get a great start, but it was a great learning experience that makes me want to get faster,” said Keira. “Overall this has been a wonderful experience.”

For Shona McCulloch, some issues with over hydration impacted her performance as she crossed the line of the 3000m in 11th place. McCulloch’s time of 9 minutes 44.74 seconds was well off her personal best of 9:26.50 set just one month ago in Ottawa, and her comments on Twitter following the race reflected that reality. “It wasn’t my best race but I’m thankful for the opportunity to compete in a world class event!”
The two women were joined in Cali by jumps coach Leslie Estwick, making them the largest Lions contingent at the World Youth Championships since the 2007 championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic when the club was represented by Karelle Edwards, Oluwasegun Makinde, Kyle Milks and coach Darcy Cumming.