The indoor season came to a close yesterday for masters athletes across the country with the conclusion of the two day Canadian Championships at York University. Before all was said and done on the track and in the field, Lions athletes walked away with a total of 14 medals including six gold.
Leading the way was Stan Seitz and his double gold performance in the men’s 75 and over high jump and pole vault. Seitz equalled his Ontario M75 record in the high jump with his clearance of 1.25 metres on Sunday. On Saturday, Seitz brought his career total of national indoor pole vault titles to an even five as he vaulted up and over 2.30 metres to win by nearly a metre.
Kimberley Howitt, who was the Club’s top masters athlete in 2022, picked up a resounding victory in the W35 800 metre event. Howitt’s time of 2 minutes and 30.47 seconds nearly 21 seconds ahead of the second place finisher from Nova Scotia. Howitt also added a silver in the 400m.
Howitt’s victory at 800 metres was part of a three gold medal haul in the event with Fritzlor Auguste and Michael Conway each taking top spot in the M30 and M35 categories respectively. Fritzor also added a silver in the 1500 metres, while Conway picked up a silver at 400 metres.
The final victory from the weekend came from the second youngest masters competitor from the Club, Jay Sneddon. The 30-year-old produced a 9 minutes and 43.52 second effort to take top spot in the 3000 metres. Younger teammate Sam Shi was second in 9:45.20.
It took one of the world’s fastest masters runners to defeat Wendy Alexis in the 50 and 60 metre events on the weekend. Alexis, a 25-time Canadian Masters champion indoors and out, took silver in times of 7.89 and 9.25 seconds respectively behind her best friend and world record holder Karla del Grande.
Also reaching the podium in Toronto were Gilles Frenette and Mike McInerney. Frenette won a silver in the M45 800 metres while McInerney finished second in the M55 3000 metres.
Full results are available at: https://ottawalions.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023_CMA_Indoor_Results.pdf