With another sun filled Ottawa Race Weekend come and gone, there were many excellent performances by Lions athletes over the two days of competition highlighted by Stuart McGregor’s 3:03:43.7 marathon debut.
The three-time Paralympic Games medalist over 800m and 1500m runs under the T13 category was the single entrant in the visually impaired marathon on race weekend, but finished 103rd overall among males. With his time, McGregor now ranks fourth globally in the T13 marathon according to current International Paralympic Committee rankings.
Fellow Paralympic medalist Jason Dunkerely was also tops in his category, winning the visually impaired 10km run in a time of 39 minutes 58 seconds. The five-time Paralympic Games medalist had a commanding margin of victory, with his nearest competitor finishing some 11 minutes behind him.
Another Lions victory came from Jenna Van Vliet who captured the women’s 5km race in a time of 18 minutes 22.7 seconds. The Carleton University graduate student was joined in the top ten by high school student Skye Pellerin (6th – 19:23.8) and the club’s favourite office manager, Jessica McCrae (7th – 19:29.9). Master’s runner Liz Maguire turned in an excellent performance of 20:15.2 to finish 15th.
In the men’s 5km race, 800m specialist Sebastian Saville showed he could run with the longer distance guys, finishing 4th overall in a time of 16:01.7, just two seconds off the podium. Teammates Jay Sneddon and Alexander Maxwell finished 6th and 8th respectively.
