All posts by : Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club

The indoor season officially came to a close Saturday as the USports Championships finished up at the Butterdome in Edmonton. But before they shut the lights out, Lions athletes manage pick up some hardware for the trip home.
It was a combination of veterans and rookies that won six medals, led by double gold medalist Ashley Connell. The senior at the University of Guelph swept both the throwing events, including a new personal best 18.46m in the weight throw. Her victories in the weight throw and shot put (15.59m) were the first in her collegiate career after previously winning medals each of the past two years in the shot put.
Also picking up two medals was Telvin Tavernier who put together the two best performances of his life to win a silver in the heptathlon and bronze in the pole vault. A relatively recent convert to the combined events from his first love, the pole vault, Tavernier was able to equal his PB in his speciality event to vault himself to the silver medal in the heptathlon, improving on his own Carleton University record by more than 150 points.
Less that 24 hours later the engineering student was back at it, clearing 4.82m in the pole vault, adding a further 12 cm to his lifetime best.The result was an impressive third place finish for Tavernier after entering the competition ranked 13th.
On the sprint straightaway, Shyvonne Roxborough showed she will be a force to reckon with over the next four years, picking up a silver medal in the 60m final as a freshman with a time of 7.51 seconds.
The Lions final medal  also came on the straightaway as Tania Bambi sped her way to bronze with a time of 8.44 seconds. Nipping at her heals was Devyani Biswal who finished just one one hundredth back in 8.45 seconds.
South of the border at the NCAA Championships, Adam Palamar picked up his first All-American Award with his 5th place finish in the mile. The Syracuse University senior finished the tactical final in a time 4:06.27.
Other top eight finishes from the USports Championship include
Seb Saville
4th – 600m (1:18.79)
Scott Hancock
5th – 60m Hurdles PB 8.26 (0.01 off bronze)
5th – Long Jump PB 7.15m
Amelia Brohman
5th – 60m (7.55)
Charlotte Gardner
6th – 600m (1:32.21)
 
 

It’s championship weekend both north and south of the border this weekend with the USports National Championships taking place in Edmonton and the NCAA Championships being held in College Station, Texas.
In Edmonton, the Lions will be represented by 17 athletes competing in 13 different events over the course of the three day meet. Entries include three past medalists,  Devyani Biswal and Charlotte Gardner, both competing for the University of Ottawa and Ashley Connell of the University of Guelph.
Biswal, a graduate student in mathematics, is the defending champion in the 60m hurdles and is coming off a school record performance two weeks ago at the OUA Championships. She enters the competition ranked 4th and is ready to go even faster.
For Gardner, she will look to rekindle the same magic she displayed three years ago in winning bronze on the same Butterdome track. If the past few weeks of competition are any indication, Gardner looks poised run beyond her sixth place seed and right back on to the podium.
Connell is in her final year at Guelph appears ready to grab that elusive USports gold medal. The only question now is whether it will come in the shot put or weight throw. While Connell has excelled in the shot put from her freshman year, it has been her expertise in hurling a 20lb ball that has raised her to the top of the national rankings. She enters the shot put ranked second in the country.
Looking to make the podium for the first time, Carleton senior Talvin Tavernier will make his debut at the national championships. The engineering student enters the seven discipline heptathlon ranked third, five points behind second. Tavernier will also compete in the pole vault where he has the 10th best mark heading in after clearing a school record 4.70m last weekend.
In Texas, Adam Palamar will be the lone Lion vying for a national championship. The Syracuse University senior enters the mile competition ranked 6th.
Below is a complete list of Lion entries for this weekend’s USports Championships. You can watch live here.
Women’s 60m (Thursday 8pm Eastern HEATS, 9pm Eastern FINAL)
Shyvonne Roxborough – Guelph 3rd
Amelia Brohman – Carleton 6th
Charifa Labarang – Ottawa 11th
Women’s 600m (Thursday 9:30pm Eastern HEATS, Saturday 3:15pm Eastern FINAL)
Charlotte Gardner – Ottawa 6th
Madison Clarke – Ottawa 7th
Men’s 600m  (Thursday 9:45pm Eastern HEATS, Saturday 3:30pm Eastern FINAL)
Sebastian Saville – Carleton 5th
Stephen Evans – Ottawa 11th
Women’s 60m Hurdles (Friday 6:30pm Eastern HEATS, 7:30pm Eastern FINAL)
Devyani Biswal – Ottawa 4th
Tania Bambi – Ottawa 5th
Alexia Lamothe – Windsor 10th
Men’s 60m Hurdles (Friday 6:45pm Eastern HEATS, 7:40pm Eastern FINAL)
Scott Hancock – Ottawa 6th
Women’s 4x400m (Saturday 6pm Eastern FINAL)
uOttawa (Jecica Joseph, Sophia Skorenky, Madison Clarke, Charlotte Gardner) – 6th
Women’s 4x800m (Friday 10pm Eastern FINAL)
uOttawa  (Rebecca Brennan, Sophia Skorenky, Madison Clarke, Charlotte Gardner)- 5th
Men’s High Jump (Friday 7pm Eastern)
Steve Nkusi – Ottawa 10th
Men’s Pole Vault (Saturday 2:30pm Eastern)
Telvin Tavernier – Carleton 13th
Men’s Long Jump (Friday 9pm Eastern)
Scott Hancock – Ottawa 7th
Women’s Shot Put (Friday 9pm Eastern)
Ashley Connell – Guelph 2nd
Women’s Weight Throw (Thursday 4:30pm Eastern)
Ashley Connell – Guelph 1st
Men’s Heptathlon (Thursday 5:15pm Eastern)
Telvin Tavernier – Carleton 3rd
 

It was championship weekend across the continent with Lions athletes competing for conference titles in both U-Sport and NCAA competition. In total, athletes took up home 15 medals including three gold and an athlete of the meet award.
At the Quebec University Championships in Quebec City, Telvin Tavernier took a break from the seven event heptathlon to contest pole vault, 60m hurdles and long jump – winning a medal in each including gold in the vault. – on his way to claiming athlete of the meet honours.
Tavernier wasn’t the only triple medalist in Quebec as Seb Saville captured 600m gold in a new Carleton Ravens record 1:20.07 on the tight track at Laval. In addition to the individual success, Saville also led the 4 x 800m (silver) and 4 x 400m (bronze) teams to medals.
The final two Raven medals came from the short sprints as both Amelia Broham and Emmanuel Nwokobia each repeated as medalists in the 60m. Brohman fell down a notch to silver in 7.66 seconds after winning in 2015. Nwokobia won bronze for the second year in a row, again in school record time (7.07).
At the OUA Championships at York University, Gee Gee athletes picked up five medals to go with Ashley Connell’s gold and silver in the throws for the University of Guelph.
Connell, in her final year as a Gryphon, had won six OUA medals including silver in the shot put on Friday night, before Saturday morning’s weight throw competition. The Brockville native won the weight throw on her first attempt with a lifetime best equalling 17.75m heave. She quickly extended her lead to 17.96m in round two to confirm victory and move to number three in club history.
Also in the field, Steve Nkusi leapt to silver in the high jump. The clearance of 2.01m was a season best for the former Canadian Junior team member who has battled back from early season injuries. Nkusi now sits in the USport top ten and appears primed to return to the national championships.
It took a lifetime best to finally put fifth year senior Scott Hancock on the medal podium. The graduate student’s leap of 7.13m in the final round Friday narrowly edged out Waterloo’s Joerg Ahne for bronze. The performance moves him in to 10th on the club’s all-time list.
On the track, seniors Devyani Biswal and Charlotte Gardner both rose to the championship occassion. Between the prelims and finals, Biswal twice bettered her own school record set in winning last year’s CIS Championships. In the deepest hurdles race in OUA history, Biswal’s time of 8.35 was good enough for bronze.
For Gardner, a CIS medalist in 2013, her bronze in the 600m (1:31.69) on Saturday was her first individual OUA medal in her five year career. However, it wasn’t her only success of the weekend as she also led the women’s 4 x 800m team of Sophia Skorenky, Rebecca Brennan and Madison Clarke to bronze in the second fastest time in school history.
 

Breaking records is starting to become old hat for Sultana Frizell this indoor season. The two time Olympic hammer throw extended her nearly one month old Canadian record in the weight throw to a staggering 23.32 metres.
Competing at the University of Toronto’s Hall Brown Memorial, Frizell’s series included four throws in excess of her previous record of 22.00m. Friday’s event was the penultimate competition on Sultana indoor schedule. She will have one final opportunity to extend her record in a few weeks time at a competition in Indiana.
Earlier this week, world medalist Melissa Bishop continued her indoor unbeaten streak, winning the AIT International Grand Prix in Athlone, Ireland for the second year in a row. Bishop led from the gun, winning comfortably in 2:01.42. The Eganville native will round out her indoor season Saturday at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham, England.
 
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gERe1dOUkVw?ecver=1&w=560&h=315]  

It was a productive weekend for Lions athletes, competing south of the border in New York State headlined by Divya Biswal bounding out to 12.69m to finish third at the Armory Track Invitational in New York City.
Biswal’s leap is the second furthest in club history behind Chantal Ouoba’s club record of 12.74m set in 2002. This was the second top ten performance of the early season for the St. Lawrence University graduate, as Biswal jumped out to 5.85m last month in a meet at Cornell University to move to number six in the long jump.
Upstate, Lions athletes broke a total of five facility records at the Ithaca College Bomber Invitational. Defending USports champion in the 60m hurdles, Devyani Biswal continued to lower her seasonal best as she twice ran under her own facility record on her way to gold on Saturday. She beat her old record of 8.65 seconds, running 8.61 in the semi and 8.56 in the final. She is currently ranked fifth in USports.
In the women’s 400m, grade 11 student Sharelle Samuel dominated the event, crossing the line in a time of 57.64 seconds. The Ashbury student eclipsed former Lion Marisa Turner’s record of 58.23 set last year, winning by over a second.
While both Seb Saville and Madison Clarke dropped under the old 800m facility records, only Clarke got to hold on to the title. She won handily in the women’s race, finishing in 2:13.67, more than a second ahead of her nearest competitor and almost eight tenths under the previous best.
In the men’s race, Saville wasn’t as fortunate. While his time of 1:52.83 was two and a half seconds under the previous record, the Carleton University student would have to settle for third place.
The final record was broken by the University of Ottawa quartet of Jecica Joseph, Charlotte Gardner, Sophia Skorenky and Madison Clarke as they obliterated the previous standard, winning in 3:52.80. Cornell University had previously set the record of 3:57.38 last winter.
Rounding out the weekend’s performances was Melissa Bishop making her 2017 debut at the Camel City Elite 800m in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she won in 2:02.49. The world championship silver medalist had been gunning for her own meet record, 2:02.10 set last year. Bishop will round out her indoor season next weekend with meets in Ireland and England.
 

Last night, for the third time in four years, Glenroy Gilbert was called before the Ottawa sporting community to be honoured as the Male Coach of the Year. Gilbert was once again acknowledged for his work guiding Lions athletes but also leading Canada’s relay team to international success.
Glenroy served as the national team coach for Canada’s three Olympic relay entries in Rio. After a heartbreaking disqualification kept his men’s 4×100 m team off the podium at the London 2012 Olympics, Glenroy’s crew of Akeem Haynes, Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse experienced the reverse fate in Rio, when USA was disqualified to elevate them into the bronze medal position. One of Gilbert’s star pupils, Oluwasegun Makinde was an alternate on the team.
One the women’s side, the 4x100m team including Lion Farah Jacques produced a 7th place finish in the Olympic final. In the 4x400m, the 13th-seeded Canadians not only reached the final unexpectedly, but came within 0.55 seconds of winning a medal, finishing in fourth place.
In addition to Gilbert’s recognition, Lions athletes took home awards in four other categories. Melissa Bishop was recognized for the third time as the Most Outstanding Track and Field athlete in Ottawa. The World Championship medalist had previously won in 2015 and 2012.
In the parasport category, Jason Dunkerley was once again recognized as Ottawa’s top athlete. Dunkerley and his guide Joshua Karanja were fifth place finishers at the Rio Games in the T11 1500m. This was Jason’s fourth win since 2011.
For the third year in a row, Tommy Des Brisay was named the top road racer in the nation’s capital. Des Brisay was the winner of four local road races in 2016 including the Nine Run Run and Army Run half marathons.
Finally, Shona McCulloch was recognized for her excellence in cross country. The Longfields Davidson senior was a bronze medalist at the OFSAA championships last November and finished seventh at the Canadian Junior Championships. Her national result qualified her to compete at the upcoming Pan Am and World Junior Cross Country Championships.

There has to be something about the Boston University Track and Tennis Centre that just seems to get Adam Palamar’s feet moving. Saturday in the Massachusetts capital, the senior at Syracuse University posted NCAA leading time, when the mile in 3 minutes  57.39 seconds.
The Merivale High School graduate had set his previous best a year ago at the same meet when he finished third in 3:58.55.
In addition to running the fastest collegiate time in North America so far this year, Palamar sub-4 minute performance moves him to number two on the club’s all-time list, just 0.02 seconds behind Olympian Stephen Agar.
Back in Canada, Lions athletes descended on Montreal for the nation’s largest indoor meet of the year – the McGill Team Challenge.
Lions, Gee-Gees and Ravens picked up a total of 10 medals including three gold over the two day competition. Ashley Connell was the only athlete to pick up two medals, winning the shot put with a USports qualifying heave of 14.47m. The senior at Guelph also picked up silver in the weight throw.
Lions athletes swept both 60m hurdle events as Keira Christie-Galloway took the women’s event in 8.61 seconds, while teammate Tania Bambi was third in 8.83. Scott Hancock was victorious on the men’s side in 8.48. Hancock also set a new best of 8.41 in the preliminaries which places 6th in the USports rankings.
Other medalists included:
Shyvonne Roxborough – Silver 60m
Amelia Brohman – Bronze 60m
Svetlana Martynova – Silver 600mCharlotte Gardner – Bronze 600m
Stephen Evans – Silver 600m
 

​The Grand Prix d’Athlétisme de Montréal takes place Saturday, February 18 at Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard. Over the next few weeks we are profiling some of the top athletes competing in the event. The event is being held in conjunction with the Hershey Canadian Indoor Youth and Junior Championships (Youth & Junior athletes can register here). The Hershey Indoor Championships will feature some of the best young talent in Canada, while the Grand Prix is headlined by International and Canadian Olympic athletes. Admission is completely free. For more information visit www.indoors.athletics.ca. 

Sekou Kaba of Ottawa will race in the men’s 60-metre hurdles Saturday, February 18. A talented hurdler, Sekou represented Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and 2015 IAAF World Championships.

AC: Now that you’ve had a few months to reflect, how would you sum up your Olympic experience and 2016 as a whole?

SK: My Olympic experience was quite memorable. It was an honor of a lifetime. It was everything I thought it would be, plus more. Though I didn’t attain my goal of being a finalist, I took away so many great lessons from the shortcoming. Soon after crossing the finish line and realizing my goal had slipped away, I made sure to forge good memories of the Games. I allowed myself ten minutes of emotional relief then I joined my friends in the stands. Right away, they lifted up my spirit by putting things into perspective. I was officially an Olympian; I was living my dream.

2016 was the best year of my life; it confirmed that anything is possible with vision, focus and belief.  
– See more at: http://athletics.ca/sekou-kaba-qa-grand-prix-dathletisme-de-montreal/#sthash.dKPCxWn6.dpuf

Sultana Frizell etched her name into the Canadian record books again Saturday at the St. Lawrence University Invite as she heaved a 20lb ball to a massive 22.00m in the weight throw.
Frizell recently returned to the weight throw after a nearly 10 year absence from the event, setting a then club record of 21.19m in late December. A two time Olympian in the outdoor equivalent, hammer throw, Frizell entered Saturday’s contest with eyes on Amy Moses long standing national record of 21.84m set back in 2004.
Sultana quickly garnered the attention of onlookers in the warm up as her first heave in practice hit the protective barriers with such force it snapped it in two. The Perth native wasted no time showing she was on form as she increased her club record to 21.35m on her first attempt.
While the three next attempts provided no improvement, Frizell unleashed her largest throw of the day in round five. As the official announced the throw would be a new Canadian record the crowd erupted in celebration – so much so that even Frizell didn’t know she had cracked the 22m barrier.
Including Frizell, Lions athletes won a total of 19 events over the weekend including sweeping both men’s and women’s titles in the 60 metres, 60m hurdles,  500 metres and the combined events (heptathlon and pentathlon). As well, the University of Ottawa women edged out the host St. Lawrence Saints for the team title (183 to 156pts).
The full list of winners is included below.
Men’s Events
60m – Emmanuel Nwokobia
60m Hurdles – Sekou Kaba500m – Stephen Evans
800m – Remy Binns
Mile – Jared Ruest
4x200m – Bertwin Ben-Smith, Brandyn Martineau, Remy Binns, Cornelius Liburd
Long Jump – Scott Hancock
Heptathlon – Telvin Tavernier *Facility Record*
Women’s Events
60m – Marie Innocent
60m Hurdles – Ashlea Maddex
200m – Roshanna Baker
300m – Marie Innocent
400m – Sydney Smith
500m – Svetlana Martynova
3000m – Lauren Moore
Pole Vault – Julia Maine
Triple Jump – Lindsay Hemstock
Weight Throw – Sultana Frizell *Facility Record*
Pentathlon – Svetlana Martynova