All posts by : Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club

The Ottawa Lions will host their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the evening of Monday, January 16, 2017 at 8:00pm. The meeting will take place at École Secondaire Louis-Riel in room 40. All members are invited to attend.
A short meeting of the new Board of Directors will follow the AGM.
Details
Annual General Meeting
École Secondaire Louis-Riel
1655 Bearbrook CH, Gloucester, ON
8:00pm
January 16, 2017
Room 40
AGENDA *revised Jan 17*
PREVIOUS AGM MINUTES
PROPOSED BY-LAW AMENDMENTS
2015-2016 AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

While it was cold and snowy outside, the performances inside the Dome at Louis-Riel on Saturday were on fire as the Lions wrapped up 2016 competition year. Lions athletes posted three new facility records including a new club record in the women’s weight throw.
Competing indoors for the first time since 2007, Sultana Frizell twice set a new personal best in the weight throw including a 21.19m effort on her final attempt. The distance extended both the club and facility records held by the two time Olympian.
On the track, Joe Fast lived up to his name, setting a new Dome record in the Under 16 boys category of the 1500m. Fast’s time of 4 minutes 15.54 seconds lowered the previous best, set in 2015, by 0.13 seconds.
Also etching their name in the record book was 14 year old Zachary Meredith who broke an eight year old mark in the 600m. Meredith finished fifth overall in 1:24.30, almost four tenths below the previous Under 16 mark. In the same race, Rio Olympian Alejandro Plaza, won in 1:19.26 to move to fourth all-time in club history.

Its going to be a full house this Saturday at the Louis Riel Dome as the final Dome Saturday Series Meet of 2016 has been SOLD OUT! More than 350 athletes, comprising almost 600 entries will contest 13 different events.
The meet, well known for its record breaking performances, will kick off at 11am with the 1000m. Field events begin at 11:30am.
To see the final schedule, please click here.

In uncharacteristically still conditions and temperatures slightly above freezing, 26 Lion athletes went to battle Saturday on at historic Fort Henry in search of Canadian Cross Country glory.
The top Lion finisher on the day was Shona McCulloch, who battled her way to a seventh place finish in the junior women’s race. With her finish, McCulloch now becomes a part of the selection pool for the upcoming NACAC XC Championships and World XC Championships. Teammate Keili Shepherd finished 20 spots behind McCulloch in 27th.
Recently named Most Outstanding Midget female, Katie Newlove was the top club finisher in the youth girls category with her 61st placing. Adrian Fournier was the top youth boy with his 51st place finish. The youth boys team finished 16th overall, while the girls were 17th.
In the junior boys event, Michael Mather completed the 8km course in 26 minutes 1 second, to finish 51st overall and the top Lion in the race.
In the open masters category, Richard Charette placed 22nd overall, completing the 8km course in 28 minute 59.1 seconds. His performance led the Ottawa Lions M40 team to a bronze medal finish. In the M50 category, the Lions also claimed a bronze medal, nine points between silver medalists, University of Toronto Track Club.

Nearly 150 athletes, coaches, parents and supporters gathered Saturday night at the RA Centre to celebrate a year of excellence for the Ottawa Lions as well as induct three new members into the Hall of Fame.
Long time coach Lorraine McKenzie, Canadian High School record holder Cheryl Coker and 1988 Olympian Brian Marshall were all inducted into the club Hall of Fame Saturday night, joining 16 previous honourees.
McKenzie was honoured for her more than two decades of coaching at the club, helping to develop some of the Canada’s best young distance running talent. Recent athletes include Erinn Stenman-Fahey, Claire Smith, and Shona McCulloch – all of whom have earned full athletic scholarships to compete in the NCAA.
In the athletes category, former javelin thrower Cheryl Coker was honoured for a career that included four national team appointments, including a bronze at the 1984 Pan Am Junior Championships. Coker still holds the Canadian Interscholastic record at 51.94m and sits second on the club all-time list with a best of 57.64m set in 1992.
Brian Marshall was a very talented athlete for the club in the 1980’s, winning national medals in multiple disciplines as a youth athlete before focusing on the high jump where he was a two time Canadian Junior Champion. Following high school, Marshall moved to Palo Alto, California where he would compete for the Stanford Cardinal and set the still standing school record of 2.28m while winning the Pac-10 conference championship. At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Marshall finished in 17th place with a clearance of 2.22m.
Highlighting the many memorable moments from 2016 was undoubtedly Melissa Bishop’s Canadian record performance in the Olympic 800m final. Bishop’s fourth place finish was the highest individual placing at the Olympic Games in club history. In recognition of her outstanding body of work, the Eganville native captured her fifth straight Gilbert Award as top female track athlete.
In the field, the Gilbert awards were presented to a pair of world class throwers for the second year in a row. On the women’s side, hammer thrower Sultana Frizell captured her 12th straight award after her silver medal performance at the Olympic Trials. For the men, shot putter Tim Nedow improved upon his club record in 2016, launching the 16 pound ball out to an astounding 21.33 metres indoors enroute to winning the inaugural IAAF World Indoor Tour. The Brockville native would go on to place 7th at the World Indoor Championships before finishing 16th at the Rio Olympics.
On the track, Oluwasegun Makinde picked up his forth Gilbert award in six years following his second straight Olympic team assignment. Among his top performances in 2016, Makinde posted the third fastest 100m time in club history, running 10.24 seconds at the Ontario Championships. The performance also made him the seventh fastest man in Canada for the year.
Other winners on the evening include:
Most Outstanding Athlete: uOttawa X-Country / Track & Field
· Devyani Biswal
Most Outstanding Athlete: Carleton University X-Country / Track & Field
· Telvin Tavernier
Most Outstanding Junior Athlete
· Male: Austin White
· Female: Shona McCulloch
Most Outstanding Youth Athlete
· Male: Wariso Dullo
· Female: Keira Christie-Galloway
Most Outstanding Midget Athlete
· Male: Joe Fast
· Female: Katie Newlove
Most Outstanding Bantam Athlete
· Ben Walrond
Most Outstanding Para-Athlete
· Jason Dunkerley
Most Outstanding XC
· Male – Jonathan Rioux
· Female – Jordan Weston
Most Outstanding Combined Events Athlete
· Patrick Arbour
Most Outstanding Masters Athlete
· Kim Ethier
Most Outstanding Athlete: Road Racer
· Tommy Des Brisay
Sean Cole: Dedication to Club Service
· Marla McInnis
For photos of the night, please check out our Facebook page.

The World Masters Athletics Championships came to a close Sunday in Perth, Australia. Among the the items Kim Ethier will be declaring on her customs form is a shiny new gold medal.
Ethier became a World Champion last week, claiming gold in the Women’s 45 javelin throw with a toss of 36.90m. While short of her seasonal best, the effort was seven centimeters better than silver medalist Ina Adam of Germany. Showing her former heptathlon talents, Ethier also posted top eight finishes in the 80m hurdles, long jump and high jump.
In the sprints, former World Indoor Masters Champion Lawrence Williams was a double finalist in Perth in the men’s 45 category. The long time member of the Ottawa Lions showed improvement in each of the three rounds of both the 200m and 400m. The progress culminated with a fifth place showing over the full lap event and seventh in the half lap.
Rounding out the trio of Lions down under was club high jump record holder Leslie Estwick. In her first year back in competition after more than a decade away, the former world championship participant cleared the third highest height in the women’s 55 high jump, but finished fifth in the count back. Estwick also placed sixth in the 80m hurdles and was a finalist in the long jump.

The Ottawa Lions are pleased to announce the investment of $50,800 for the purchase of 110 new competition hurdles in preparation for our hosting of the 2017/2018 Canadian Track and Field Championships.
The bulk of the investment comes from the generous support of the province through the Ontario Trillium Foundation capital equipment grant. The provincial grant covered $40,700 of the cost, with the remaining funds supplied by the Ottawa Lions.
The new hurdles from Aluminum Athletic Equipment Company are a welcomed edition to the Lions’ arsenal of competition equipment and will help the club continue to deliver the largest complement of track and field competitions in Canada. 
The current set of competition hurdles, purchased in 2001 for the hosting of the Francophone Games, will be freed up for training purposes to help develop the next generation of hurdles from the National Capital Region.
The new hurdles, shown at right, will make their competition debut next spring at our annual High School Series.
 

In the final step before the upcoming USports (formerly Canadian Interuniversity Sport) Cross Country Championships, Ottawa Lion athletes competed under the banner of The University of Ottawa and Carleton University yesterday at the Quebec University Championships in Sherbrooke.
The top finisher on the day was Gee Gees runner Katie Phillips who was the second to cross the line in the women’s race. The former USports Rookie of the Year completed the 6km run across the Old Lennoxville Golf Course in 21 minutes 57 seconds, 34 seconds behind McGill’s Melanie Mynard. Phillips’ effort has qualified her for the upcoming Canadian University Championships to be held next month in Ste. Foy, Quebec.
On the men’s side, Alex Behre cracked the top 10 with a 34 minute 5 second clocking over the 10km course. With the placing, the fourth year social sciences student at the University of Ottawa qualified for nationals, where he will be joined by teammate Nicolas Roberts.
The top female for Carleton was Jessie Lilly, as she crossed the line 22nd with a time of 24:01. Sebastian Saville was the top male for the Ravens with his 24th place finish.

The Ottawa Lions were well represented among the winner’s category at the 9th Annual Athletics Ontario and Ontario Masters Athletics Awards Gala which took place last Saturday in Richmond Hill. In total, Lions athletes took home six awards with Wendy Alexis being honoured as the top female athlete in the masters sprints/hurdles category as well as winning the Ontario Masters Athletics Female Athlete of the Year.
Wendy was acknowledged for her tremendous season on the track which saw her win double sprint gold in the women’s 60 category at the Canadian Championships where she bested her long time rival, Karal Del Grande. Alexis was also the Ontario champion over 200m, but was edged out for gold in the 100m by Del Grande at the provincial championships.
There were no surprises in the senior women’s distance category as Melissa Bishop took home the award for the second year in a row after her fourth place finish at the Olympic Games and a new Canadian Record of 1:57.02 for 800m.
Also in the distance category, Shona McCulloch was recognized for her spectacular season which included two Canadian records. McCulloch first broke the Canadian junior indoor 5000m record last winter with a run of 16 minutes 31.22 seconds in New York City. Then this spring she broke former training partner Claire Smith’s national junior 3000m record. Shona would lower it again at the World Junior Championships with a run of 9:16..93 to finish 11th.
Tim Nedow was named Ontario’s top senior male thrower for the fifth year in a row following a season that saw him break the 21m barrier for the first time ever. Nedow was also the inaugural winner the shot put of the IAAF Indoor World Tour. The Brockville native was also 7th at the World Indoor Championships and 16th at the Olympic Games.
Leslie Estwick was honoured as the top female athlete in the masters jumps category in her first season of masters competition after more than a decade off. Estwick was a provincial and national champion in the women’s 55 and over high jump. After equaling the previous Canadian record at provincials, Leslie added two more centimetres to it at nationals.

FROM CANADIAN RUNNING MAGAZINE
Thomas Des Brisay led a pack of more than 8,500 runners to the finish in the half-marathon at the Canada Army Run on Sunday in Ottawa. The 24-year-old runner with autism, also one of Canada’s top para-athletes, ran 1:12:24 to win by almost two minutes over James Murphy. His time was a personal best.
Des Brisay, who runs for the local Ottawa Lions Track & Field Club, is a regular on the Ontario running circuit and completed his first marathon in 2014. The 24-year-old was diagnosed with autism at an early age and has been getting faster by the day since his start in the sport in 2006.
On Sunday, Des Brisay, who wants to be “the first fastest runner in the world,” showed off his speed running his 5K splits as follows: 17:02, 16:19, 17:25, 17:42 and finishing off with a 3:59 final 1.1K.
Continue reading.
Lions athletes athletes also swept the 5km races with Alex Behre (15:26.8) and Katie Phillips (17:33.9) both victorious.