All posts by : Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club

Lions athletes managed to amass a staggering 22 medals this past weekend at the Ontario Bantam/Midget/Youth Championships in Brampton including five gold. The impressive haul was highlighted by midget runner, Joe Fast’s impressive four medal collection.
Fast has been living up to his name all season and this past weekend he did not disappoint, winning three gold and one bronze over the two days of competition. The Ridgemont High School student swept both the midget boys 1200m and 2000m competitions, the latter by a 10 second margin.
In addition to his individual efforts, Fast moved up an age class to gold in the youth boys 4x400m relay and earned a bronze as part of the midget boys 4x800m team.
Youth sprinter Noah Regnier also picked up a few medals over the weekend, garnering a gold and two silver. Like Fast, Regnier was a member of the winning 4x400m relay team, but he also grabbed a silver as part of the sprint medley team where he ran the opening 400m leg. Given those performances, it should come as no surprise he was also a silver medalist in the individual 400m, finishing in a time of 50.49.
Young hurdler Peter Bertels was the star of the bantam section, picking up an astonishing five medals. After a trio of bronze medals in the 80m hurdles, 200m hurdles and high jump, Bertels also nabbed golds as a member of the bantam 4×100 and 4x800m teams.

When Sultana Frizell didn’t qualify for the IAAF world championships in London, the track and field athlete didn’t want to sit around and pout about it.
Instead, the two-time Olympian started practising with hammers in the backyard of her family’s farm in Perth, Ont., in preparation for the 38th annual New Brunswick Highland Games Festival in Fredericton this weekend.
Frizell will take part in the women’s heavy athletic events. Although she’s used to competing in the hammer throw at track meets, she’s had to spend some time learning about the Scottish events, with help from YouTube.
“I basically go out there with the cows and throw things with them,” said the 32-year-old, holder of the hammer throw record at the Commonwealth Games.
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With the 8th Jeux de la Francophonie set to wrap up Thursday, the Ottawa Lions have posted some excellent performances both on the track and in the field. The small contingent of six athletes have amassed three medals over the first four days of competition in Abidjan.
Sekou Kaba, the defending 110m hurdles champion from four years ago, crossed the finish line in the silver medal position with a time of 13.81 seconds, just seven hundredths behind winner Loic Herkenrath of France.
Charifa Labarang was a silver medalist in the 4x100m relay for her native Cameroon. Labarang has had a successful Games, finishing eighth in the 100m final and also qualifying for tomorrow’s 200m final.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Ashlea Maddex raced herself onto the podium with a time of 13.44. She was followed by teammate Devyani Biswal who was sixth in 13.62. Tania Bambi failed to make the final.
 
Biswal’s twin sister Divya just missed out on a medal in the triple jump, finishing an agonizing 7cm off the podium in fourth. Biswal’s leap of 13.13m had put her in a medal position until the sixth and final round when she was passed by Christina Bujin of Romania.
Divya rounded out her Games today with a seventh place finish in the long jump with a leap of 5.87m.
 

Sharelle Samuel and Keira Christie-Galloway each had an extra item to declare on their customs forms as they returned from a weekend of international competition.
The 17 year old Samuel won a silver medal in the 400m hurdles at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Nassau, Bahamas. It took a lifetime best performance of 59.59 seconds to find her way on to the podium, where she missed out on gold by less than two tenths of second. The performance was also the fourth best in club history.
The Ashbury student was also a finalist over 400m, finishing fourth in 54.51.
Samuel almost secured the elusive gold when her mixed 4x400m relay team crossed the line in first place. However, the team was later disqualified after the final runner began before the acceleration zone according to team manager Scott MacDonald.
At the Pan American Junior Championships, Keira Christie-Galloway and the rest of team Canada’s 4x100m team picked up a bronze behind the United States and Jamaica. Lions alum, Shyvonne Roxborough was also a member of the medal winning team.
In her specialty, 100m hurdles, Christie-Galloway finished sixth in a time of 13.68 seconds. The performance was a seasonal best and just 0.04 seconds off the Glebe Collegiate graduate’s lifetime best.

After winning her fourth Canadian Championship over 800m just two weeks ago in Ottawa, Melissa Bishop definitely had a new Canadian record in her sights at some point this summer.
However, it may have come a little earlier than expected as she dropped one one hundredth of a second off her previous best as she finished fifth in Friday’s Diamond League event in Monaco with a time of 1:57.01.
The Eganville native had set her previous national mark last August in the Olympic final where she finished fourth.
Bishop will be looking to get back on the global podium in two weeks time at the IAAF World Championships in London.
“The plan was to go our hard and we went out pretty quick, and just getting good position to have a really strong last 200 and I think we did that,” said Bishop. Her goal remains to break the 1:57 barrier and she feels she’s ready. “It was so close to 1:56. I’m happy we have some weeks coming up until worlds and we’ll bang it out there.”

It was just nine months ago when Jason Dunkerley announced his retirement from international running at the club’s annual awards banquet. However, that exit was obviously short lived as Dunkerley and new guide Jeremie Venne ran their way to a silver medal at the IPC World Championships tonight in London.
Friday night’s medal was the sixth World Championship medal for Dunkerley and his third over 1500m. The Canadian record holder had previously won gold over the distance in 2002 and 2006.
Dunkerley and Venne had a rocky start to the race, but persevered, picking their way through the field. The duo closed hard in the final metres to secure the silver medal and finish in a seasonal best performance of 4 minutes 13.67 seconds.
The IPC World Championships will come to an end Sunday when Tommy Des Brisay races in the T20 5000m final. The Canadian record holder enters the event ranked third in the world.
 

The 8th Jeux de la Francophonie will commence tomorrow evening in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire where defending 110m hurdles champion Sekou Kaba is expected to lead the Canadian delegation into the stadium, carrying the maple leaf.
Kaba is one of five members of the Ottawa Lions contingent in Abidjan. Also competing are fellow hurdlers Ashlea Maddex, Devyani Biswal and Tania Bambi (Team Quebec). Biswal’s twin sister Divya will compete in the both the long and triple jump. The contingent is rounded out by coach James Holder.
Kaba will follow in the footsteps of Sultana Frizell who was the flag bearer for Team Canada at the closing ceremonies of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

From Athletics Canada:
Athletics Canada named Glenroy Gilbert to the position of Head Coach, and announced that Simon Nathan will soon begin in the role of High Performance Director.
“I look forward to this new opportunity as we continue to grow the sport domestically and internationally,” said Gilbert. “Alongside Simon, we are committed to elevating our status worldwide.”
Gilbert’s recent accomplishments are impressive, he led the men’s 4×100-metre relay team to a bronze medal at the 2015 IAAF World Championships and at the 2016 Olympic Games. Also in Rio, he led the women’s 4×400-metre relay team to a fourth-place finish, and the women’s 4×100-metre relay team to a seventh-place finish. From 2006 to 2014 he was Athletics Canada’s lead relay coach, in 2014-2015 he worked with the Canadian Paralympic Committee in the position of Senior Coordinator, High Performance and Games Enhancements. As a coach, he has attended four Olympic Games and seven World Championships.
“The first order of business is to ensure athletes and coaches have everything they need to perform at their best ahead of the IAAF World Championships in London,” said Gilbert when asked what comes next. “Performance on demand continues to be our number one focus. We are emerging from an outstanding Canadian Championships and will keep the momentum throughout our preparation camps in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Guadalajara, Spain; and then into London for the IAAF World Championships. Our coach-led, athlete-centered approach is paramount to our continued international success.”
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Shot putter Tim Nedow is slowly finding his way to “the big one” and Sunday’s victory at the Canadian Championship was just the latest step.
The Brockville native’s winning mark of 20.53 metres was a massive 2.91m ahead of his nearest competitor. In fact, all six of his throws exceeded the rest of the field by more than 2m.
“I’m pretty pumped about my series. I had five throws over 20 metres and two above the World Championship qualifying stand,” said Nedow.
For Nedow, the “big one” is getting back over the 21m barrier. “I’ve done it indoors, but I’ve yet to do it outdoors, but it’s in me.”
Austin White had been struggling with his form the past few weeks, but certainly hit his stride on the way to a silver medal in the under 20 400m hurdles yesterday. The Kemptville native posted a time of 54.58 seconds, his second fastest of the season.
“I feel great. I haven’t been able to have a good race like that since OFSAA,” said White of his performance Sunday. “It feels great to finally be back on the national stage like that”
 
Also grabbing a medal in the 400m hurdles was 16 year old Sharelle Samuel. The Ashbury College student ran just outside her personal best, crossing the line in 61.36 seconds for bronze.
A newcomer to the event, Samuel says she mostly relies on her flat 400m speed. “I don’t really sprint when I’m running over the hurdles. So after the last hurdle then I go for it”.
It was that speed that helped secure the medal as she approached the final barrier off the podium before sprinting past her competition to the line.
The final medal came from high jumper Barb Bitchoka as cleared 1.75m to secure the bronze.
A student at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Bitchoka says she was unfazed by the larger crowds at nationals. “When I jump, I start to just blank everything out.”
Bitchoka has seen her performances improve dramatically over the past year, improving her personal best by 10cm. “I started to work harder. I began incorporating a strength training regimen, as well as improving little things like sleeping habits and nutrition.”
 
 

If there was any question as to who the crowd was here to see last night, the sea of red Melissa Bishop shirts that took over the middle section of the Terry Fox Stadium could certainly give you an answer.
The two time Olympian did not disappoint the hometown crowd leading the women’s 800m wire to wire and finishing in a stadium record 2:00.26.
“It’s nice to run at home,” Bishop said. “I haven’t been home in a long time to run, and to have my family and my friends here, they’ve been beside me through this entire career, even before I was an Olympian. . . so it means a lot.”
Right before Bishop’s victory, her former roommate Sultana Frizell unleashed her 4kg ball out to 66.88m to claim her seventh Canadian hammer throw championship.
Despite breaking the Canadian record in the weight throw three times this winter, Frizell has struggled to hit the world championship standard of 71.00m this outdoor season.
“It has been a bit of struggle this year, but, the further I go along this year, the more consistent I get,” said Frizell. “I think it’s just going to come down to getting into a meet and let ‘er rip, really.”
The Perth native will head to Toronto this week to try and hit standard before the qualification window closes in seven days time.
Hurdler Sekou Kaba will be joining Frizell on the hunt for a world championship qualifying mark after his silver medal winning performance of 13.65 seconds in the 110m hurdles fell short of the 13.48 cut off.
“It’s been a long season of nicks slash injuries,” said Kaba. “I’m happy to be going well right around this time. There’s so much more in the tank. I just hope to get more opportunities to let it out.”
Also in the hurdles, Ashlea Maddex picked up her first nationals medal since 2014, running a personal best 13.26 seconds for bronze.
Bronze was also the medal colour for Divya Biswal in the women’s triple jump, Sharelle Samuel in the under 20 women’s 400m and Tom Nedow in the under 20 men’s shot put. It was Nedow’s second bronze of the championship.