All posts by : Ottawa Lions

At the Special General Meeting of members on Thursday, August 29th, a new board of directors was elected. The new members bring a vast array of personal and professional skills to the board and the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club is excited for this new chapter and the upcoming Olympic year!

Board of directors

Nathalie Côté President-2 year term

Jennifer Dumoulin Vice-President -1 year term

Christopher Benk Treasurer-3 year term

Zeena Rashid Secretary-2 year term

Kirk Dillabaugh Coaches’ representative-3 year term

Derek Brougham Athlete representative-3 year term

Gordon Cavé Director-at-large-1 year term

Dave Farthing Director-at-large-2 year term

Eleanor Fast Director-at-large-1 year term

Lynn Thompson Director-at-large-2 year term

Sammie Brennan Director-at-large-3 year term

This past weekend 20 Lions athletes closed out the 2019 competitive season at the Legion National Championships in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In total, the athletes registered 15 top 8 finishes including four medal winning performances.

David Adeleye was the first athlete to win medal at the Championships winning the U18 boys 110 metre hurdle final in 14.45 seconds, just off his personal best. The result was one of redemption for the Ashbury College student after a stumble in the OFSAA final back in June pushed Adeleye off the medal podium and down into eighth place.

Adeleye would also feature in the U18 boys 4×100 metre squad which placed fourth in a time of 43.61 seconds – seven tenths off the podium. Impressive was that the Lions were the only club team to finish among a group of six provincial squads. The team of Adeleye, Zach Bryant, Sam Frankowski, and Zach Meredith even managed to beat the Team Ontario entry by almost a full second.

It was another hurdler who grabbed the other individual medal of the weekend as Luca Nicoletti took silver in the U16 boys 200 metre hurdles. Nicoletti recovered from smacking the final hurdle to finish in a time of 25.26 seconds. Sunday’s result in the intermediate hurdles was almost Nicoletti’s second medal of the weekend. He had been leading the 100 metre hurdle final before getting tangled up at the seventh hurdle and dropping back to eighth.

In addition to his success in the individual events, Nicoletti also picked up two medals as part of relay teams. The U16 boys 4×100 metre relay team of Nicoletti, Yannick Meredith, Thomas Kukla-Colby, and Joshua Van Der Laan posted a time of 46.93 seconds to finish in third behind Alberta-Northwest Territories and Quebec. The exact same quartet of athletes lined up in the sprint medley relay race where they placed second in a speedy time of 3:45.90.

The pair of U18 girls relay teams were nothing if not consistent, posting fourth place finishes in each of the two relay events. First was the 4×100 metre event where the quartet of Katie Manor, Doyin Ogunremi, Audrey Gilmour and Paulina Procyk posted a blistering 48.97 second clocking to set a seasonal best. The same quartet filled out the line up card for the 4×400 metre relay where the ladies posted a time of four minutes and 3.26 seconds.

This weekend’s events marked the culmination of the 2018-19 season for our Foundation and ASpire programs. New programs are set to kick off the 2019-20 season in early September. Check out our Programs page for all the necessary information.

For the the reigning silver medalist Tim Nedow, Wednesday night’s shot put final at the Pan American Games in Peru came within one round of going according to plan – with a spot on the medal podium.

Nedow set the tone early on with with a heave of 20.47 metres that firmly place him in the silver medal position, but as the rounds progressed he had trouble finding his rhythm in the seven foot circle. Leaving the ring, the look on his face would tell the story of close, but no cigar.

The sixth and final round was a cracker of a competition with five of the eight participants better their marks – including Nedow. The fireworks resulted in Mexican record holder Uziel Munoz and American Jordan Geist both leap frogging Nedow and knocking him off the podium. Unfortunately for Nedow, his response of 20.48 metres would leave him in fourth.

“It was a crazy last round, I really wish I could have responded. I thought I threw a bit further, it’s unfortunate that I came a bit short,” Nedow told Athletics Canada after the competition. “At these Championships I wanted to either medal or have a good throw. I didn’t do either so Worlds is still my big goal. I’m feeling healthy and I will keep training while I’m down here. I’m going to have to throw further than that at the World Championships.”

In the hurdles, Keira Christie-Galloway completed her longest season on record with an 11th place finish at the Pan American Games. The 19 year old was seventh in her semi-final with a time of 13.57 seconds, well off her season’s best of 13.10 seconds set back in May at the Big 12 Championships.