The distance from the Terry Fox Athletic Facility to the Windsor’s Alumni Stadium measures a touch under 800 kilometres. When you’re driving home, the surest way to make that trip seem a little shorter is by bringing home some top notch performances with. That’s just what the group of 17 Lions competing at this past weekend’s Johnny Loaring Classic did.
Combined, the Lions registered an impressive 12 seasonal bests, 7 personal bests and 3 all-time top 10 performances.
Victoria McIntyre kicked the meet off in style by placing third in the open section of the women’s 100 metres. More importantly was McIntyre’s time of 12.02 seconds which erased a tenth of a second off her 10-year old personal best.
However, that performance was simply an appetizer to the main event that was the open section of the women’s 200 metres, where McIntyre dominated the field – winning in a blazing time of 23.77 seconds. After dipping under the 24 second barrier for the first time, the 28-year-old sprinter rocketed up five spots to number five on the Club’s all-time list.
With her performance on Saturday, McIntyre is currently ranked 17th in the country over 200 metres and she has some company on those national rankings.
Lauren Gale moved atop the national ranking Saturday following her win in the elite section of the women’s 200 metres. Club record holder in the event, Gale produced a seasonal best time of 23.17 seconds to take the win. The 2021 Olympian also produced a seasonal best effort of 11.69 seconds in the heats of the elite 100 metres before posting a windy 11.60 clocking to finish third in the final.
It was a windy 100 metre final for Bianca Borgella, but that didn’t stop the visually impaired runner from taking top spot in the para ambulatory section. Borgella equalled her personal best time of 12.12 seconds in victory, but unfortunately for her the tail wind exceeded the allowable two metres per second.
A pair of personal best performances came out of the men’s and women’s 400 metre hurdle events. Alexandra Telford trimmed more than half a second off her previous best in the event as she placed fifth in a time of 58.74 seconds. She remains in fourth place on the Club’s all-time rankings.
David Moulongou’s hurdle performance on Saturday pushed him inside the top-10 rankings. The University of Ottawa student-athlete crossed the line in a time of 52.52 seconds to place eighth in a strong field that saw three men dip under 50 seconds. Moulongou’s time is the eighth fastest ever in the Club for the one lap hurdle race.
Back-to-back personal bests was what was on the menu Saturday afternoon for André Alie-Lamarche. The middle distance runner ran his second successive personal best at 1500 metres, as he took the top spot in the open men’s section in an impressive time of 3 minutes and 47.60 seconds. Alie-Lamarche, coming off a personal best effort of 3:48.10 three days prior at the Inferno, now moves into 22nd on a very deep Club 1500 metre list.
Finally, Maria Okwechime took third place in the elite women’s long jump. Despite incurring a small hamstring irritation in the warm, Okwechime did manage to leap out to a distance of 5.85 metres – the second farthest distance of her career.
For updated Club rankings, please visit https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/