Even the hosts of Wednesday night’s Inferno meet in Guelph talked about weathering the storm.
However, the storm was no match for 100m hurdler Keira Christie-Galloway. The University of Ottawa student edged her way into the Canadian record books with her second place finish, behind Olympian Shermaine Williams, in a time of 13.31 seconds. Christie-Galloway trimmed one one hundredth of a second off the previous standard set by Karen Nelson at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Breaking big records is nothing new for the 18 year old, having previously bested Perdita Felicien’s long standing 100m hurdle OFSAA record in 2016.
Christie-Galloway wasn’t the only Lion to re-write the record books in Wednesday’s race as teammates Farah Jacques and Devyani Biswal each posted significant lifetime bests to move up in the club’s all-time rankings. Jacques finished just off the podium in fourth with a time of 13.36 seconds while Biswal was sixth in 13.43. The performances move the ladies to fourth and fifth respectively in club history.
While we’re sure Keira would love to celebrate her new found record in front of a home crowd in three weeks at the Canadian Championships, she will likely be boarding a flight to Tampere, Finland for the upcoming IAAF U20 Championships instead. Wednesday’s performance all but guarantees her a spot on the team which will be announced Tuesday and depart for Europe depart two days before the preliminary rounds begin at nationals.
However, she is likely to be surrounded by a familiar face on the flight as club mate and fellow Gee-Gee Maeliss Trapeau won Wednesday’s Ottawa Twilight 800m in a lifetime best of 2:04.82. With the performance, Trapeau has moved into the number one ranking in Canada with just four days to go before the team is selected. Wednesday’s winning time also moved Trapeau into fourth in club history and currently ranks her 15th globally.
Also waiting to see if they are named to the Canadian U20 team are Sharelle Samuel (400m & 400mH) and Lauren Gale (200m & 400m) who have achieved the standard are currently are ranked in the top two nationally in one of their events.
