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The final day of the 2024 Canadian Track and Field Championships brought an impressive eight medals to close out the five-day event. In total, the Lions athletes amassed 17 medals over the competition, showcasing their prowess on the national stage.

Improving upon their fourth-place finishes from a year ago, the dynamic hurdling duo of Zachary Jeggo and Quinn Coughlin captured two medals on Sunday. Jeggo secured his second medal of the championship with a second-place finish in the men’s U20 400-metre hurdles, clocking in at 54.69.

Quinn Coughlin claimed a bronze medal in the U20 women’s 400m hurdles, finishing in 1:01.14. Despite battling swirling winds, Coughlin’s time was the second fastest of her career.

In the 200-metre finals, Jorai Oppong-Nketiah earned her second medal of the championship with a windy 23.76 effort to take silver. The 100-metre champion narrowly missed out on the title to 400-metre victor Dianna Proctor of the Edmonton Royals.

After achieving a personal best in the qualifying round on Saturday night, Liam Davis returned on Sunday with yet another personal best in the U20 men’s shot put, heaving the 6-kilogram ball out to 15.23 metres on his fifth throw to move from sixth to first. However, the Split City Sonics’ Jake McEachern pushed Davis down to the silver medal on the final throw of the competition.

Following two gruelling days of competition, Kathryn Moreland walked away with the second-best score of her career and a silver medal in the U20 women’s heptathlon. The University of Ottawa student scored 4177 points, becoming the second Lion in three years to take silver in the event, following Audrey Goddard’s silver in 2022.

The U20 men’s 4×400-metre relay team of William Harris, Stephan Balson, Ange-Mathis Kramo, and Zachary Jeggo delivered a phenomenal performance, finishing second with a time of 3:17.26—the third-fastest U20 time in club history.

At the senior level, the women’s 4×400-metre relay team, composed of Marie-Eve Dahms, Rosemary Holmes, Sydney Smith, and Doyin Ogunremi, claimed their sixth consecutive title with a time of 3:51.26. Additionally, the 4×100-metre relay team of Sarah Ouangre, Audrey Gilmour, Cora McQuinn, and Vienna Courteau clinched victory with a time of 49.37.

For updated club performance rankings following the championship, please visit https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/

A highlight of this year’s Championship was the senior women’s 400 meters, an event marked by unprecedented strength in Canada. This was evident in Saturday’s final, where Lauren Gale secured her second silver medal in three years, finishing with a time of 51.35 seconds.

“I think I went out pretty hard and didn’t fall asleep on the corner,” said Gale of her race plan execution. “Just at the end didn’t have enough to keep first.”

After a stress reaction in her foot was discovered at the 2022 World Championships that disrupted her training for the 2023 season, Gale said she was “just happy to be running healthy and have a good season,” following Saturday’s race.

While Lauren did not guarantee her spot in Paris, it is widely expected she will be named to the Olympic team when it is announced this week. However, she is not one to count her chickens before they are hatched. “I’m waiting for the e-mail confirmation that says ‘Lauren you’re going to Paris’.’”

David Adeleye, despite a shoulder injury just three weeks prior, added another national medal to his collection. The recent University of Toronto graduate took home silver in the 110 metre hurdles, finishing behind Royal City’s Craig Thorne with a time of 13.94 seconds. The two had a similar 1-2 finish at this year’s USports Championship. 

“The race was good from one to five (hurdles), and then the race went apart at five or six and it held me back a bit,” described Adeleye. “The time was decent given the circumstances of the race,  but I know I can go a lot faster this season.”

Zachary Jeggo made a significant leap from his seventh-place finish as a 16-year-old in 2023, earning bronze in the U20 men’s 400 meters with a time of 48.29 seconds.

Stephan Balson, who posted the second-fastest time in Friday’s semi-final, did not advance as a non-Canadian. Balson hails from St. Kitts and Nevis, which he represented at last year’s Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago.

Stephen Evans, a medalist last year in the 800 metres, missed the podium Saturday night, finishing fifth with a time of 1:48.75. Positioned near the back of the pack at the halfway mark, Evans was unable to close the gap with the leaders over the final 400 metres..

Nicolas Belan also fell short of reaching the podium, placing sixth in the U20 men’s 1500 metres on Saturday afternoon. Belan, one of three Canadian men to have achieved the World U20 Championship standard, finished in a time of 3 minutes and 58.16 seconds.

The 400-metre hurdle semifinals saw significant success for the Ottawa Lions, with five athletes qualifying for Sunday’s finals. Quinn Coughlin (U20) and Rosemary Holmes (Senior) will compete in the women’s finals, while Saj Alhaddad and David Moulongou will represent the men in the senior final. Zachary Jeggo also qualified for his second consecutive U20 men’s final before winning bronze in the 400 metres.

Kevin Robertson, who won silver in Thursday’s steeplechase final, secured his spot in a second final of the weekend with a personal best of 3:43.84 in the 1500 metres, claiming the last spot in Sunday’s final.

Finally, Liam Davis secured his spot in the U20 shot put final with a personal best throw of 15.15 metres. Davis, who was a medalist at the recent OFSAA Championships, was forced to qualify through the preliminary rounds as he had not yet competed with the 6-kilogram implement.

“Wow” was all anyone could say when Joari Oppong-Nketiah crossed the finish line of the U20 women’s 100-metre semi-finals Friday night at Montreal’s Centre Sportif Claude Robillard. When the scoreboard flashed her winning time of 11.38 seconds, a collective gasp was let out as the 16-year-old did what no Canadian teenage woman had ever done at the national championships – run under 11.50 seconds.

The Louis-Riel student’s performance is the second fastest ever by a Canadian teenager, behind the great Angela Bailey, whose national U20 record of 11.21 seconds has stood since 1981.

By the time the final rolled around two hours later, the sun had faded under the night sky, and the temperatures had dropped a few degrees. Oppong-Nketiah didn’t let that stop her from bringing the heat, as she followed up her championship record with another sterling time of 11.39 seconds, despite running into a slight headwind.

“When I’m under pressure, I tend to run better and faster and harder,” said Oppong-Nketiah about her championship performance. “I worked on my starts. I think my start had a huge impact on the outcome of my race.”

For Bianca Borgella, she booked her ticket to Paris for this summer’s Paralympic Games after a commanding victory in the Para Ambulatory 100 metres. After warming up with a 16th place finish in the open women’s 100 metres, Borgella ran past her fellow ambulatory competitors with ease, crossing the line in 12.20 seconds – half a second ahead of silver medalist Sheriane Hause.

A double medalist at last year’s World Para Athletics Championship in Paris, Borgella will be looking to improve her T13 100-metre bronze to something a little more golden when the finals roll around on the evening of September 3. What won’t be on Borgella’s Paris schedule is the 200 metres, as they are not being offered for the T13 category at the Games.

A year ago, Connor Fraser entered the U20 discus competition as the favourite to take home gold but failed to make it out of the opening rounds. One year later, and up an age category, he is leaving the Canadian Championships as the second-best discus thrower in the country following a personal best throw of 50.57 metres.

Fraser initially put himself in the silver medal position following a second-round personal best of 50.18 metres. However, in the final round, Quebec’s Vladimir Tocari stepped into the circle and hurled the 2-kilogram platter out to 50.53 metres, forcing the Carleton University student to respond.

“What my coach Tim said just a couple of minutes ago was, ‘just go for one,’” commented Fraser on his mindset as he entered the circle for his final throw. And that he did, unleashing the discus and letting out a rare scream as it landed – 50.57 metres away.

“Last year’s U20 discus was a disaster,” said Fraser following the competition. “Coming in here, I guess I didn’t really have any expectations. And just being able to perform, it’s the unexpected ones that feel the best.”

Josh Cassidy added to his long list of Canadian Championship medals as he rolled his way to a convincing victory in the Para Wheelchair 1500 metres. Cassidy dominated his only event of the weekend, crossing the line in a time of 3 minutes and 18.55 seconds – nearly a full minute ahead of the second place competitor.

Earlier Saturday evening, two Club stars sealed their spots in the evening finals.

Lauren Gale looked comfortable winning her heat of the 400 metres in 51.87 seconds. Gale, who has achieved the Olympic standard this season, will line up in possibly the deepest 400-metre final in Canadian history, with a spot in Paris on the line. The final is scheduled for 8:57 pm.

Club record holder Stephen Evans is set to appear in his second straight national 800-metre final after his second-place effort of 1:47.84 secured him one of two automatic qualifying spots in his heat. Evans, who is scheduled to run at 10:08 pm, will be looking to improve upon his bronze medal performance from a year ago.

Kyle Waldrum concluded the two day U20 men’s decathlon with a personal best score of 5726. Waldrum finished 7th overall.

Visit live.athletics.ca to stay up to date with the latest results in Montreal.

Thursday night at the Canadian Track and Field Championships has become synonymous with distance running events since the creation of “Distance Night” when Ottawa hosted the 2018 event. Featuring an array of steeplechase and 5000 metre races, two Lions athletes made a notable impact by bringing home gold and silver medals.

In her first competitive race in nearly two months, Maddie Seaby displayed no signs of rust as she dominated the U20 women’s 5000 metre race from start to finish. Despite battling swirling winds, Seaby took the lead from the start and never relinquished it, winning with a time of 17 minutes and 10.45 seconds.

“It’s a little surreal,” Seaby said of her first U20 Canadian Championship title. “I’m still taking it in.”

Seaby had a breakout season in her first year at the University of Louisville, posting the seventh fastest U20 time in Club history for 3000 metres (9:42.33) and the fourth fastest for 5000 metres (16:35.43).

With her gold medal, Seaby becomes only the third Lion to win a national U20 title over 5000 metres, and the first woman. She joins an elite list that includes Michael Woods, who was recently named to his third Canadian Olympic Team in cycling, and Sean Kaley, a member of Canada’s 2000 Olympic Team, whose senior championship record over 5000 metres was bested by Mohammed Ahmed last night.

Kevin Robertson upgraded from a bronze medal last year to silver in the 3000 metre steeplechase last night, finishing in 8 minutes and 37.91 seconds after a speedy final lap. The recent Syracuse University graduate produced the fastest final lap of the evening, closing in 64 seconds to surge from fifth at the bell to second place.

Thursday night’s medal is Robertson’s second in the steeplechase at the Centre Sportif Claude-Robillard, following his win in the U20 event at the 2019 national championships. With his complete set of Canadian Championship medals, he now ties with Danelle Woods for the Club lead in national championship steeplechase medals.

In the U20 men’s 3000 metre steeplechase, Derek Strachan placed ninth overall with a personal best time of 9:41.11.

With a massive lifetime best in the U20 men’s 5000 metres, Noah Smith ran 15:29.75 to finish 17th. Smith’s previous best had been 15:50.91 set earlier this season. 

Salome Nyirarukundo finished 23rd in the senior men’s 5000 metres, recording a seasonal best time of 16:38.07.

Off the track, Olivia Merritt finished seventh in the senior women’s javelin throw. Competing in her first national championship, the 33-year-old produced a best throw of 42.26 metres.

A busy morning on the first full day of the 2024 Canadian Track and Field Championships saw 30 athletes in action including two in finals. 

Sadie Gibert competed well in her first national final, placing fourth in the U20 women’s shot put with a best throw of 10.88 metres. The result was a marked improvement over her result at the OFSAA Championships earlier this month where finished outside of the final in 18th.

Battling swirling winds that gave a number of vaulters headaches on the runway, Balqis Chouikhi managed to clear a height of 3.10 metres to finish 10th in the U20 women’s pole vault. The 16-year-old’s clearance was the third best clearance of her life.

In this morning’s qualifying rounds, three Lions performed well enough to advance to the main portion of the Championship. First to book their ticket was Doyin Ogunremi who advanced to the senior women’s 400 metre semi-finals after a seasonal best run of 55.75 seconds. This is the third straight year in which Ogunremi has advanced to the 400 metre semi-finals.

Over 100 metres, Bianca Borgella was among those to advance to the senior women’s 100 metre final after producing a windy 11.92 second effort. Borgella, who was a bronze medalist over 100 metres at last year’s World Para Athletics Championship, will contest the open women’s semi-final Friday night before running the Para Ambulatory 100 metre final to ensure her qualification for the Paralympic Games. 

One of the newest Lions, Stephan Balson was the final qualifier out of this mornings’ session. Balson, who hails from St. Kitts’s and Nevis, advanced to the semi-finals of the U20 men’s 100 metres after placing second in his heat with a wind aided time of 10.81 seconds.