REGINA, Sask. — A small contingent of Ottawa Lions athletes made a big impact at the Royal Canadian Legion Track and Field Championships, with 16 athletes combining for seven medals — including three national titles — at Canada Games Stadium in Regina from August 7-9.
Among the 16 Lions were two athletes selected to Team Ontario, with Anabelle Muir and Roan Gerth both returning home with national medals. Across the three-day championships, the Lions collected three gold, two silver and two bronze medals, while also producing a number of personal bests and performances that moved athletes up the club’s all-time lists.
Isla Kittmer was the first Lion to reach the podium, delivering a masterful performance to win the U18 girls 3000m on Saturday in 10:12.95. Kittmer remained just off the lead through the early stages of the race before making her move with approximately 700 metres remaining. Once she took the lead, there was no looking back, as she continued to extend her lead with each following step eventually amassing a 15 metre gap on the field. With nothing in reserve, Kittmer dropped to the track in exhaustion as she crossed the line in victory.
The victory marked the first individual provincial or national podium finish of Kittmer’s career.
The day prior, Kittmer placed seventh in the U18 girls 1500m, finishing in 4:42.36, the second-fastest of her career.
Producing gold medal performances has seemed to become commonplace for Anabelle Muir this season. Sunday’s U18 pole vault competition was no different as Muir cleared a personal best height of 3.80m for victory. Competing for Team Ontario, the 16-year-old’s winning clearance added 25 centimetres to her personal best as she won by 15 centimetres over British Columbia’s Amy Woods.
Sunday’s clearance is the second-highest in Lions history behind Patricia Gauthier’s Club record of 4.06m from 2008. Nationally, it ranks third all-time among Canadian 16-year-olds and ties for ninth on the all-time U18 list and caps a season that included national titles both indoors and out.
Rounding out the national champions was the U18 boys 4x100m quartet of Alex Forzley, Logan Morrice, Declan McGinnity and Maxime Cazabon, who won their heat of the timed final comfortably in 42.59 seconds over Team Ontario. The boys then had to wait and watch for their time to hold up against second heat winners Thorold Elite, by 0.07 seconds. The time is the fourth-fastest in club history and marks the first time since 2010 that Lions boys have topped the 4x100m podium at the Legion Championships.
For the third time in a month, Roan Gerth, took second place behind Ontario teammate Sawyer Nicholson in the 1500m steeplechase. The soon-to-be Grade 10 student at Glebe Collegiate crossed the finish line in 5 minutes and 4.04 seconds – 14 seconds back of Nicholson in the U16 event. Collectively, the two were the class of the field as they separated themselves from the field early on — quickly building a 10 metre gap within the first few hundred metres. As the race progressed, Nicholson would pull away from Gerth, who held strong running on her own.
“Last jump, best jump” was a mantra warmly embraced by Roxy Gardiner in Sunday’s U18 girls triple jump event. On her sixth and final attempt, the Sir Robert Borden student produced a lifetime best of 11.50m to secure bronze — her first national championship medal. Gardiner’s effort edged the Edmonton Thunder’s Kit Woolverton by just one centimetre for the final spot on the podium, with her performance moving her to No. 3 on the Ottawa Lions all-time U18 list.
It was a busy weekend for Gardiner, who also finished eighth in both the high jump (1.54m) and long jump (5.26m). She was also part of the Lions’ U18 girls 4x100m relay team that finished 10th.
On Saturday, Jarred Rathwell added bronze in the throws, sending the 700-gram javelin out to 51.55m for his first national medal.
The seventh medal came Sunday from the U18 girls 4x400m team of Olivia Daigle-Dasah, Autumn Sakiyama, Norah Nitta Mackay and Ellie McGregor, who ran 3:53.32 for bronze behind British Columbia and Alberta. The time is the third-fastest in club history.
While finishing off the podiumm, Noah Hollinger was not far from the story of the meet. Over two days in the decathlon the 17-year-old placed fourth with 5,517 points, setting a personal best and a Lions U18 record. Along the way, Hollinger set personal bests in 7 of the 10 events and closed the competition by winning the 1500m in 4:24.87.