Divya breaks both jump records
Twenty five years ago “The Sign” by Ace of Base topped the music charts, “Forest Gump” made it’s debut in theatres and the world was enamored with Netscape Navigator as a way to get around the early days of the internet. It was also when Leslie Estwick set a club record in the women’s long jump with a leap of 6.27 metres at a competition in Prince George, BC.
Flash forward to 2019 and Divya Biswal, who was barely 18 months old when Estwick set the standard, added 3 centimetres to the mark with her 6.30 metre leap to finish second at the Bryan Clay Invite in Azusa, California. It was a breakthrough performance for the 26 year old Biswal as all four of her measured jumps were in excess of her previous best of 6.01 metres.
“Records are made to be broken,” said Estwick when asked about Biswal’s performance. With a smile on her face, she also quipped, “Just give me credit for having held [the record] for 25 years.”
Not finished with her record breaking ways, Biswal returned to the runway an hour later to contest her specialty – the triple jump. Despite feeling the affects of competing for nearly four hours in the California sun, the St. Lawrence University grad bounded her way out to a new lifetime best and club record of 13.31 metres on her third attempt. Unfortunately, she would pass her final three attempts due to cramping.
Despite the long record setting day, Biswal came right back the next day the Beach Invite in Long Beach to set yet another record, again in the triple. She wasted no time, adding a further seven centimetres to her record as she broke the sand at 13.38 metres on her first attempt. Just like that, victory belonged to Biswal as she won by more than a foot over Ja’la Henderson of the University of Wyoming.
Bishop-Nriagu returns and breaks 1500m record
Little did we know that when Melissa Bishop-Nriagu walked off the track in London Stadium after the 2017 World Championship 800m final fans we would have to wait another 643 days before we would get to watch her run again. The Eganville native opened up her 2019 campaign this past Saturday at the John Loaring Classic in Windsor where she toed the line at 1500 metres, as she has been known to do in the past. Bishop-Nriagu was the class of the field, winning in a new Club Record time of four minutes and 9.36 seconds and topping the field by more than 12 seconds. Bishop-Nriagu’s old mark of 4:09.58 was set in 2017.
Nedow 9th at worlds
It’s pretty insane right now. Those were the words Tim Nedow used to describe the level competition in the shot put, globally. After Saturday’s final at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, not many individuals would disagree with his assertion.
Even before Nedow had entered the circle, American Ryan Crouser had surpassed the 32 year old championship record of 22.23m held by Austria’s Werner Günthör, providing just a glimpse of what was to come.
After opening with a fault in round one, Nedow stepped back into the circle for his second throw, pushing the 16 pound ball out to 20.50 metres.
“I had the goal of coming in and throwing close to a PB. I’d like to throw 21.10. It was kind of my goal,” said Nedow of his pre-comp mentality.
Unfortunately for the Brockville native, he fell short of his goal, only able to muster a 20.85 metre effort in round three. This left Nedow in ninth, and about a foot outside of advancing to the final three throws.
Kristie-Galloway sweeps Big 12 indoors and out, breaks Iowa State records and moves to 2nd all-time
For Keira Christie-Galloway, her transition to the NCAA from USport competition with the University of Ottawa Gee Gees has been as smooth one. The Iowa State Cyclone sped her way to a new lifetime best of 13.10 seconds in the 100m hurdles and another Big 12 title. Christie-Galloway, who also captured the indoor conference title in school record time, has completely re-written the Iowa State record book in her short four and a half months in Ames, having set the outdoor school record three times already this season.
Kristie-Galloway, Gale and Stenman-Fahey garner All-American status
Each year after the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association awards the prestigious All-America award to those athletes who place among the top 16. The trio of Lauren Gale, Keira Christie-Galloway and Erinn Stenman-Fahey each earned their first All-American distinction at this year’ championship.
Gale was the first to run, competing in the 4×100 metre relay with her Colorado State Ram teammates. As she has done all year, the freshman runner ran a strong leg on the back stretch, helping to propel the Rams to a fifth place finish in their semi-final and a new school record of 43.92 seconds. It was the fouth time the Rams had broken the school mark this season and this time it placed them 16th in the country to claim the final All-American spot.
Next on the track was Christie-Galloway who did not disappoint in posting the second fastest time of her life over the 100 metre hurdles. The Iowa State Cyclone crossed the line in 13.15 seconds to finish sixth in her heat and place 16th overall.
The elder statesman of the group, Stenman-Fahey, closed out her collegiate career in the best way possible – with a new personal best. The Cyclone senior concluded in two lap tour of Mike A. Myers Stadium in two minutes and 5.11 seconds – 31 thousandths faster than she had ever done before. The result was a sixth place finish in her heat and third top 16 performance for the Lions.
Congratulations to our three All-American Canadians!
Robertson and Cox emerge in steeplechase
The duo of Kevin Robertson and Will Cox had a breakout season which started with a 1-3 finish in the open boys 2000 metre steeplechase at June’s OFSAA Championships. Robertson dominated the event almost from the gun as he methodically put metres between him and the field lap after lap. The culmination was a nearly 50 metre margin of victory from the grade 12 Bell runner as his winning time of 5:47.55 was the fastest since 2016. Training partner Will Cox of Colonel By took the bronze in a personal best 5:56.97. Robertson nearly managed a second medal in the senior boys 3000 metres, falling a half second short of bronze as he was fourth in 8:36.37.
The pair replicated the finish at the Canadian U20 Championships. Robertson owned the race, setting the pace and running away from the field to win in a personal best time of 9:13.94. “I wanted to win, but I also wanted to run fast so I knew I was going to go to the front and run hard,” said Robertson of his race plan. Robertson also moved to seventh on the club’s all-time list with his time, bumping coach Kirk Dillabaugh out of the top 10. Cox snagged bronze in a personal best time of nine minutes and 26.34 seconds.
Cassidy wins LA marathon with replacement chair
If you saw the results of the 34th Los Angeles Marathon, you would have seen that Josh Cassidy won the wheelchair division by an impressive seven minutes. However, if you had seen the three time Paralympian’s Instagram stories from the day before you’d be even more impressed by the performance.
During a training session the day before, Cassidy’s custom racing chair snapped clean in half at the front causing a nose dive into the pavement. In a video posted to Instagram, the former World Record holder explained how he figured he was going about 25 km/h before the break happened. He thankfully only suffered some minor scrapes to his elbow.
However, with less than 24 hours to race time, Cassidy was without a chair to race in. Thankfully his coach at home was able to retrieve a spare, which is sister picked up and delivered to the Toronto airport. His former college roommate Nick Bester took it the rest of the way, flying with the chair to Los Angeles. By the time Bester arrived and the chair was assembled it was midnight, not leaving much time before the 3:30 am departure to the starting line.
“Got an hour a sleep, so I’m proud of this” Cassidy told the Orange County Register of his 1:31:47 victory.