OTTAWA, Ont. — Day two of the Canadian Track and Field Championships presented by Bell may go down in the records books as one of the rainiest on record as more than an inch of rain fell over the Terry Fox Athletic Facility, but it was not enough to dampen the results of Lions athletes as they picked up three medals – their first of the week.
Daniel Cova got the Lions on the board – taking home the silver medal in the U20 Men’s 5000m for the second straight year. The Iona University athlete and eventual winner Brendan Currie of the WinCity Endurance Project broke free of the field by the first kilometre and just kept going. Cova would lose contact with Currie after 2200m, running the remainder of the race largely on his own – finishing in 14:54.38 as strong winds tested the athletes in more ways than one.
Cova wasn’t the only Lion in the field as teammate Charlie Mortimer set a personal best of 15:18.04 for eighth. Saul Taler was 12th and Owen Recoskie 13th.
For the third straight year, Connor Fraser is the second best discus thrower in Canada as he captured a silver medal Thursday night with a throw of 49.73m. Fraser, a Carleton University student, missed the entire collegiate competition season and Thursday’s competition was his first and only competition of the year.
After a gruelling two days of competition in the decathlon, Kyle London stepped off the track Thursday evening with a bronze medal around his neck. The 18-year-old University of Ottawa student won both the discus and 1500m events on the second day as he racked up a personal best score of 6382 points – less than 50 points shy of Taylor Corney’s U20 Club record set in 2009.
The 400m was the star of the morning session as no fewer than four Lions athletes advanced to Friday night’s 400m finals. Lauren Gale was the top qualifier in the senior women’s 400m, while Zachary Jeggo, Ange-Mathis Kramo and Ayoub Shangai all advanced to the U20 men’s 400m final — the same trio that anchored the Lions’ Canadian club-record 4x400m relay last year.
Maria Okwechime, the 2023 Canadian champion, advanced to the senior women’s long jump final with a leap of 5.89m in qualifying.
In the middle distance qualifying, Timothy Kelly-MacLean advanced to the U20 men’s 800m semifinals, while Shannon Dewar, Autumn Sakiyama and Ciara Villeneuve all moved through to the women’s 800m semifinals. André Alie-Lamarche and Nico Belan both advanced out of the qualifying rounds in the senior men’s 1500m.
Rounding out the day, Tessa Knight (11:23.79) and Kyra Lauter (11:32.64) each set personal bests in the U20 3000m steeplechase. The pair now rank fifth and sixth, respectively, among Lions U20s in club history.
Results are available at live.athletics.ca