As the heat continued to beat down on the track at Terry Fox Wednesday, the first medals of the 2018 Canadian Championships were handed out with Lions athletes picking up a full set of gold, silver and bronze.
Runners Keegan Gaunt and Shanna Boutillier went one-two in the women’s para ambulatory 400m to capture the club’s first medals of the championship. Gaunt’s winning time of 1:02.50 surpassed her own yet to be ratified Canadian T13 record of 1:02.84 set last spring in Tempe, Arizona. Boutillier, a Canadian record holder in the T46 category, was second to cross the line in a time of 1:06.51 for silver.
Closing out the evening on the track was the decathlon 1500m, which brought an end to an intense two days of competition across the ten events. While Matthew Johnson was victorious in the final event in a personal best 4:20.08, it was teammate Telvin Tavernier who took home the Canadian bronze with a personal best of 6719 points.
Tavernier was not the only Lion decathlete to improve their personal best on the day as both John Claude Van Biljon and Kevin Nault peaked for the championships, While Van Biljon scored higher than Tavernier with 6788 points, he did not figure into the Canadian medals as a South African citizen. Nault’s total of 6128 points was nearly a 350 point improvement on his previous best despite only setting one individual event best – finally breaking the five minute barrier in the 1500m in 4:51.89.
Day three of the Canadian Championships continues today with many qualifying events and culminating in the Run Ottawa Distance Night beginning at 6 pm.
To purchase tickets, https://www.showclix.com/event/canadian-track-field-championships-2018
Live Results: http://liveresults.athletics.ca/Live_Results/2018/Championships/
Live Stream: athleticscanada.tv
