When Sebastian Saville crossed the line to win the 600m at Saturday’s uOttawa Winter National Invitational, he knew his time of 1:17.45 was something special. The fourth year psychology student from Carleton University knew right away he had set a new Louis Riel Dome record – he had finished three quarters of second behind the University of Toronto’s Sacha Smart when he set the then standard of 1:18.01 two years prior.
However, for Saville the records didn’t end there as his stellar performance bested one of the club’s oldest records – Richard Brant’s 600m time of 1:18.02 set almost 30 years ago to the date. Seb, who was also a national finalist over 800m last summer, attributes his recent success to consistent training and health balance in life. “I’ve found a good spot with my network. Ray Elrick has been instrumental with his coaching, my parents are extremely supportive and my work and school have been flexible with their asks as well.”
In addition to the record performance over 600m, Saville also took down the Dome record for 800m on Friday night with a time of 1:51.59 – nearly a full second ahead of the previous standard. Oddly enough, the record performance would go unnoticed by the speedy Saville until a half hour after Saturday’s performance. “I had honestly thought the 800m record was a bit faster,” he joked.
Also at Saturday’s meet, University of Ottawa freshman Keira Christie-Galloway equaled her lifetime best with an 8.53 second clocking in the 60m hurdles prelims before winning the final comfortably in 8.62 seconds. Her performance from the prelims currently puts her second in the Canadian University rankings.
South of the border, hurdler Ashlea Maddex lowered her seasonal best to 8.40 seconds en route to winning a competition in Nampa, Idaho. A freshman at Cal State Los Angeles, Maddex is currently in a tie for the number one performance in the NCAA Division 2 rankings.
Next on the calendar for the Lions is next weekend’s McGill Team Challenge in Montreal and the Dr. Sander Invitational and Columbia Challenge in New York City.
