As the indoor season progresses towards conference and national championships, the athletes continue to ramp up the quality of their performances. This past weekend it meant three improvements to the club’s all-time list.
Farah Jacques got every athlete’s dream birthday present as she ran her way to a new lifetime best Friday night on Staten Island. Jacques’ recent work at an Athletics Canada training camp in Grenada certainly paid off as she sped to an 8.40 second clocking over the 60m hurdles in the preliminaries before posting a time of 8.45 seconds in the final to claim victory.
An Olympic finalist as part of the 4x100m relay team in Rio, Jacques has utilized her speed to great effect since switching to the hurdles. Friday’s performance moves her to seventh in club history.
Already in the number two spot, Keira Christie-Galloway equaled her two week old lifetime best of 8.29 seconds over the 60m hurdles. Christie-Galloway who recently transferred to Iowa State University to join club-mate Erinn Stenman-Fahey, was victorious in her home debut in Ames. In her first four meets as a member of the Cyclones, she failed to fall below a top-5 finish.
Also in Ames, Stenman-Fahey produced a lifetime indoor best over 800m of two minutes 6.20 seconds to finish fourth. The performance currently ranks the senior 17th in the NCAA.
Finding their way on to the top ten was Farah Abdulkarim in the more seldom run indoor 5000m. A junior at the University of Mississippi, Abdulkarim captured top place at the Music City Challenge in Nashville, Tennessee Friday night with a scorching time of 14 minutes 2.78 seconds to narrowly edge out Jaime Romo of Eastern Kentucky University. Abdulkarim’s time ranks him eighth in club history, only three seconds behind the other most recent entry on the list, Adam Palamar from 2016.
The Lions return to the track this weekend as they host the Ravens Varsity Last Chance this Saturday at the Louis-Riel Dome. Action gets underway at 10am with the U16 shot put and runs throughout the day.
For more information, please consult ottawalions.com/meet-info
