The Ottawa Lions left Windsor with 24 medals, including seven gold, from the Ontario U20 and Open Track and Field Championships, this past weekend at the University of Windsor’s Alumni Stadium from Friday through Sunday.
Providing the signature performance of the Championships for the Lions, Ayoub Shangai ran away with the U20 men’s 400m title. After teammate, and reigning Canadian champion Zachary Jeggo pulled out of the final, all eyes were focused on the recent Louis-Rield graduate and he ceased the moment.
Sitting on the field for the first three quarters of the race, Shangai dropped the hammer as he headed into the home stretch — surging clear to win by five metres in a time of 47.18 seconds. The performance trimmed more than two tenths of a second from his previous best from last June and moved him to third on the Club’s all-time U20 list. Making the even more impressive was the fact it came two hours after placing sixth in the 100m final with an all-conditions best performance of 10.57 seconds (w +2.5m/s)
The medal haul wasn’t over for Shangai as he added a bronze medal anchoring the 4x100m a few hours later. Teaming up with Jamie Meikle, Xavier Placid and Maxime Cazabon, the quartet produced the fifth fastest U20 time in Club history — 42.13 seconds.
Cazabon had some individual success of his own leading a Lions 1-2 finish in the U20 men’s high jump. The national bronze medalist captured provincial gold with a clearance of 1.90, while teammate Fallo Douramodou took the silver after clearing 1.85m. Cazabon rounded out the weekend by adding a second relay bronze to his collection with the 4x400m team that included Jimmy Lu Langley, Nathan Cox, and Jamie Meikle.
On the women’s side, Shannon Dewar, Waverley Lyons, Autumn Sakiyama and Ciara Villeneuve combined to win the U20 4x800m on Saturday evening in 9:34.47. In addition to the gold medal, their performance moved the quartet to seventh all-time on the Club’s U20 list. Three of the four — Dewar, Lyons and Sakiyama — doubled back to close out the meet in the 4x400m, joining Nora Nitta-MacKay for silver in 4:01.30.
For the third straight year, the Lions senior women captured gold in the 4x400m to end the competition. This year’s team of Tatiana Pender, Sophia McIntyre, Kathryn Moreland and Amy Stieh delivered a winning time of 3:51.16 with Stieh anchoring in a strong 54.17 seconds.
In the field, Jessica Gyamfi picked up a pair of medals. On Friday evening, the recent University of Ottawa nursing graduate took top spot in the open women’s shot put with a best throw of 13.01m to win by half a metre over London Western’s Anij Sparenberg. A day later, Gyamfi added provincial silver in the discus to go with her national bronze from June.
Madison White rounded out the Lions’ champions. The Carleton University student swept the para ambulatory sprints, winning both the 100m and 200m.
The Lions filled out the podium across the program. Ken Lorbetskie took silver in the senior men’s 5000m, while Owen Recoskie (silver) and Barrett Goold (bronze) went two-three in the U20 men’s race. Leo Wallner (senior) and Taisei Tan (U20) each claimed silver in the 110m hurdles. Amy Stieh added bronze in the senior women’s 400m, Rose Basu bronze in the senior women’s 200m, Elizabeth Moreland bronze in the senior women’s triple jump, and Jack Mines silver in the U20 men’s discus.
The relays produced another five medals. The senior women’s 4x100m of Basu, Danica Mulvihill, Teagan Casselman and Ella-Grace Gilbert took silver. In the 4x800m, the senior men’s quartet of Lorbetskie, Matteo Padoin-Castillo, Adriano Padoin-Castillo and Dean Kontogiannis earned silver, and the U20 men’s team of Brennan Lee, Lucas Gomez, Recoskie and Goold added bronze. The U20 men’s 4x400m of Jimmy Lu Langley, Nathan Cox, Cazabon and Meikle rounded out the relay haul with bronze.
The Lions were in the hunt for team honours in both divisions. In the senior standings, they placed second with 128 points, behind champion London-Western TFC’s 192. The junior race was tighter, with London-Western on top at 155 and Ottawa second at 120.5. Neither result is final — scores in both categories won’t be settled until the combined-events championships are contested July 25-27 in St. Catharines.