At any championship over the past twenty years there has always been one thing the Ottawa Lions could be known for – relay running. As the 2022 Canadian Championships wrapped up Sunday that was on full display with the Lions adding nine medals in the relays – highlighted by a new Canadian Club Record.
The quartet of Doyin Ogunremi, Sydney Smith, Alexandra Telford, and Lauren Gale had their eyes set on the Club record of 3:44.58 as they took to the start line, but were rewarded with an even bigger prize. The four women combined to move the baton around the McLeod Athletic Park oval four times in a blistering 3:35.46 to break the previous Canadian Club Record of 3:40.08 set by the former Speed River Track Club in 2019.
Doyin Ogunremi started strong with a 55.7 second opening leg, going even faster than her two day old personal best in the event. Each progressive leg got even faster with Smith dropping a 53.9 second leg, followed by Telford’s 53.2 penultimate leg.
By the time Telford had handed the baton off to Gale for the anchor run, she had amassed a significant 30 metre lead. Running solo, Gale still put the hammer down, closing in 52.0 seconds to win by a near 100 metre margin.
The senior men’s 4×400 metre team of Leewinchell Jean, Stephen Evans, Saj Alhaddad, and Bertwin Ben-Smith also laid down an impressive time of their own. The quartet took bronze in a time of 3:12.92 – the third fastest time in Club history.
Following two Canadian record performances in the T13 100 and 400 metres, Bianca Borgella anchored the U20 4×100 metre team to her third gold of the Championship. The team of Emma Martins, Katie Manor, Emily Brennan, and Borgella won in 48.25 seconds.
The final individual medal of the championship went to Luca Nicoletti in the U20 400 metre hurdles. The recent Paul-Desmarais graduate ran a personal best time of 53.94 seconds in the final to grab a bronze. Nicoletti’s time was the ninth fastest by a junior in Club history.
Other relay medals from the final day of competition were as follows:
U20 Women’s 4×400 metre relay – Bronze (Emily Brennan, Elizabeth Vroom, Amelia Van Brabant, Louise Stonham)
Open Women’s 4×100 metre relay – Silver (Coralie Ostertag, Brooklyn McCormick, Sia Mahajan, Emma Dobson-Takoff)
U20 Men’s 4×100 metre relay – Silver (Seiyf Gebara, Luca Nicoletti, David Moulongou, Zachary Sikka)
U20 Men’s 4×400 metre relay – Bronze (David Moulongou, Seiyf Gebara, Zachary Sikka, Luca Nicoletti)
Open Men 4×100 metre relay – Bronze (Zach Bryant, Bertwin Ben-Smith, Michael Pinnock, David Adeleye)