For the second time in two weeks, the Lions found themselves in a tight battle for the team title at the provincial championship. As is known to be the case, the team title was decided in the final event – the men’s 4×400 metre relay, where the Lions entered tied with Royal City Track Club from Guelph at 103 points. However. Royal City’s one second victory gave them the overall crown with the quartet of Luca Nicoletti, Leewinchell Jean, Fabrice Nonez, and David Moulongou grabbing silver – one of 12 medals for the Lions over the weekend.
The one of the most decorated athletes of the Championship was Alexandra Telford, who took home a total of three medals, including two gold. While earning relay medals in her teenage years, the 25-year-old took home her first individual provincial medal Saturday as she ran away with gold in the 400 metres. Running just off her personal best, Telford finished in 55.85 seconds, nearly a second ahead of silver. Teammate Helana Jovic also picked up a bronze in the race.
Telford would set a new lifetime best Sunday in the 400 metre hurdles, placing third in 1:00.35 to move to ninth on the Club’s all-time list. Jovic would finish three spots back in sixth with 1:02.50. The pair would teamed up with Doyin Ogunremi and Madison Clarke to take the gold in both the 4×400 metre relay.
Bianca Borgella also took home a trio of golds as she captured both the para ambulatory 100 and 400 metres. The latter in a new Canadian T13 record of 1:04.30. The 18-year-old just missed her Canadian record in the 100 metres with her 12.76 clocking. Borgella also helped anchor the 4×100 metre relay team of Vanessa Lu Langley, Doyin Ogunremi, and Kelly Brennan to gold in thee 4×100 metres.
Topping the podium in the 3000 metre steeplechase was Nicholas Pedersen who was making his debut at the distance. The 21-year-old had not run the steeplechase since placing sixth at the 2018 OFSAA Championships over the 2000 metre distance. Pedersen’s time of nine minutes and 44.80 seconds was more than a minute ahead of silver and moves him to 16th best in Club history.
Leewinchell Jean produced a lifetime best to take silver in the 400 metre hurdles. The University of Windsor student crossed the line in 52.86 seconds, dropping nine tenths of a second from his previous best set winning OFSAA gold in 2019.
Other medals from the weekend included a bronze from Stephen Evans in the 800 metres and gold from the 4×100 metre relay team of David Adeleye, Luca Nicoletti, David Moulongou, and Bertwin Ben-Smith.