Bishop and Gale Sizzle on Track

The track was on fire this weekend with some superb performances by Lions athletes, including a new club record by Melissa Bishop in the 1500m and sprint sweep by Lauren Gale at the Colorado 4A State Championships.
Bishop opened her outdoor season much the same way she did indoors, with a large PB in the 1500m. While the World Championship silver medalist is better known for her two lap effort, she made a case for herself in the metric mile, winning the Windsor Open in 4 minutes 9.58 seconds. Bishop led from the gun, essentially running away from the field in a time trial type effort.
The victory lowered Melissa’s personal best by more than eight seconds and eclipsed Nathalie Cote’s previous club record of 4:12.68 set in 1998. The time also ranks her fifth in Canada.
Also in Windsor, Ashlea Maddex captured top spot in the 100m hurdles in a seasonal best 13.57 seconds. Farah Jacques was second in the 400m with a personal best 53.91.
South of the border, sprinter Lauren Gale was a dominating force at the Colorado State 4A Championships, picking up a quartet of gold medals. Gale, a triple gold medalist at last year’s OFSAA championships, relocated to Colorado Springs last fall and wasted no time making an impression, sweeping all three sprinting events and bringing her school from worst to first on the final leg of the sprint medley en-route to a new championship record.
Running all three sprint championships in less than two and a half hours, Gale battled a 2.1 m/s headwind to win the 100m in 12.32 seconds. She followed that up less than an hour later with a dominating 53.72 second 400m – winning by nearly two seconds. The performance was a lifetime best for Lauren, and her to fourth on the club’s all-time list.  She topped it off with a 24.19 second clocking in the 200m final – winning by nearly a second.
Rounding out the weekend, Oluwasegun Makinde won the 200m at the St. Laurent Selects twilight in Montreal in a seasonal best 20.71. The time ranks the University of Ottawa graduate fifth in Canada, just 21 hundredths of a second off the Olympic standard.