OTTAWA — David Moulongou continued his sensational start to the outdoor season last weekend, breaking the Ottawa Lions club record in the men’s 400-metre hurdles for the second consecutive week while adding another personal best less than 24 hours later.
Competing Saturday afternoon at the Rose City Open in Windsor, Moulongou stormed to victory in the 400-metre hurdles in a meet record 50.36 seconds. The performance lowered the club record of 50.92 that he had set just one week earlier at the Ottawa Spring Kick Start and now ranks the University of Ottawa athlete 17th all-time in Canadian history.
Moulongou returned to competition the following day at the Hamilton Season Opener, where he placed second in the open men’s 400 metres in a personal best 47.31 seconds. The mark moved him to 11th on the Ottawa Lions all-time list in the event and continued a breakthrough stretch for the 23-year-old hurdler ahead of next month’s Canadian Track and Field Championships in Ottawa.
Another standout performance came Wednesday in Italy, where reigning Canadian champion Maëliss Trapeau opened her outdoor campaign with one of the strongest races of her career at the 15th Savona International Meeting.
Trapeau finished third in a tightly contested 800 metres with a time of 2:00.39, finishing just behind Mauritius’ Rachel Klopfenstein (1:59.82) and Ethiopia’s Samrawit Mulugeta (2:00.18). The performance marked the fastest outdoor season opener of Trapeau’s career and provides an encouraging early benchmark as she prepares to defend her national title next month in front of a hometown crowd at the Canadian Championships while pursuing qualification for the Commonwealth Games.
In Hamilton, Saul Taler delivered an impressive debut over 5,000 metres. Racing for only the second time since competing at the World Cross Country Championships in January, the Queen’s University student clocked 14:51.52 to place sixth on the club’s all-time U20 rankings. The performance also surpassed the qualifying standard for the Canadian Championships and currently ranks Taler fifth nationally among in the U20 category this season.
The Hamilton meet also saw strong performances from several Lions middle-distance athletes. Jocelyn Giannotti dropped more than eight seconds from her personal best in the women’s 3000 metres, finishing fourth in 10:04.39. Elizabeth Vroom followed in 13th place in 10:28.97. Nicolas Belan ran 1:54.64 to place fourth in the men’s 800 metres.
At the Crépuscule Saint-Laurent Select meet in Québec, James Compeau ran a lifetime best 48.46 in the men’s 400 metres to lead a Lions 1-2 finish alongside Luca Nicoletti, who followed closely in 48.86. André Alie-Lamarche earned victory in the men’s 1500 metres in 3:55.21, while Max Wilson was sixth in 4:01.28.
Updated Club rankings can be found at https://rankings.ottawalions.com