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The Ottawa Lions will host a Special General Meeting (SGM) on the evening of Monday, October 2, 2023 at 8:30 pm.
Taking place in the Blue Trailer at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility, the meeting will provide the Board of Directors to share with members updated financial statements from the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
Please register to attend on Trackie. The meeting and agenda and financial documents will be circulated to registered guests the morning of October 2nd.
For the second time in two weeks Langley, BC played host to a national championship. This time around it was the Canadian Masters Track and Field Championships taking place at the McLeod Athletic Park Stadium and again Lions athletes were in it to win it, bringing home 13 medals overall including 8 gold.
A pair of nationals rookies led the medal haul as Erinn Joseph and Ashley Crawford each took home a trio of medals from the Championship.
Joseph made it a clean sprint sweep – taking the top spot at 100, 200, and 400 metres. The 33-year-old produced seasonal best performances at all three distances to claim gold, including dropping nearly half a second of each of her 200 and 400 metre bests.
Crawford also garnered three medals in the sprint events. A seasonal best of 67.05 at 400 metres was good enough for bronze in the W35 category. Crawford was a combined nine hundredths of a second off her bests at 100 and 200 metres, but nonetheless took home the silver and bronze medals respectively in the two events.
Our undisputed queen of masters sprinting, Wendy Alexis again showed why she is one of the best in the world – comfortably taking home the gold in both the 100 and 200 metre events in the W65 category. At 68 years of age, Alexis won the 100 in a time of 14.12 seconds – her fastest performance since 2020 and the third best regardless of age at the Canadian Championship. Alexis also produced her fastest 200 metre performance in three years, winning in 29.89 seconds.
After a bronze and gold performance at the indoor championships, Michael Conway upgraded himself to a pair of golds at 400 and 800 metres in Langley. The 39-year-old’s winning time of 55.33 was more than three seconds faster than the second place finisher. Over the two lap race the margin of victory extended to 8.5 seconds as Conway crossed the line in 2 minutes and 5.76 seconds.
Rounding out this year’s medalists was Kimberley Howitt, who also picked up a pair of medals over 400 and 800 metres. Last year’s Most Outstanding Masters Athlete for the Lions was a silver medalist at 400, finishing behind former national junior team member Corri Fell with a seasonal best time of 1:06.05. Over 800 metres, Howitt produced the fastest women’s time in any age category, winning in 2 minutes and 31.52 seconds.
Marino Sani also added a bronze in the M60 400 metres with a time of 1:13.66.
For updated Club performance rankings, please visit: https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/
It’s been 45 years since the Royal Canadian Legion Track and Field Championships started with their first event in Oromocto, New Brunswick. From those first championships in 1977 through today, Lions athletes have amassed an impressive 185 medals including 72 golds.
At the latest iteration, held this past weekend at the University of Sherbrooke, Lions athletes added eight more medals to the collection.
Completing a feat never accomplished by any Lions female sprinter, Jorai Oppong-Nketiah swept the 100 and 200 metre sprint events at the Legion Championships. Coming off a commanding win over 100 metres at the Ontario Championships the week before, Jorai was the event favourite and she did not disappoint – taking gold in 12.07 seconds.
Unlike her previous two championship performances of the summer, Oppong-Nketiah contested the 200 metres and quickly ran away from the competition. After producing a personal best of 24.68 seconds in the heats, Jorai topped off her competition with a 24.65 second effort in the final. Her performance ranks as the second fastest among U16 females in Club history.
After just falling short of the podium at the Canadian Under-20 Championships last month, Zachary Jeggo found his way to the national podium on three occasions in Sherbrooke. Individually, new personal bests at both the flat 400 and 400 metre hurdles catapulted the Louis-Riel student to silver medals.
Jeggo’s time of 55.33 in the hurdle event is the fastest ever by a Club member in the U18 age category, while his 48.60 second run in the flat 400 ranks him third. Of course, he still has another year ahead of him to get that record as well.
In addition to the individual exploits, Jeggo’s fast legs also helped the U18 boys team of Safwan El Mansari, William Sanders and Erick Zielonka capture silver in the 4×400 metre event. The quartet finished in a time of 3:22.15 to best the Club U18 record set by El Mansari, Sanders, Jeggo and Timeo Atonfo earlier this summer.
Similar to Jeggo, Quinn Coughlin also picked up a pair of medals at the Legion Championships after a pair of fourth place finishes at the U20 Championships. The Opeongo student captured bronze in both of the 400 and 400 metre hurdle events with times of 57.11 and 1:02.84 respectively.
A year removed from a registration error that kept Timeo Atonfo off the start list in the long jump, the Gisele-Lalonde student showed the country just what they were missing out on as he took home the silver medal in the U18 event. A third round effort of 6.89 metres surpassed his previous best heading into the event and leaves him ranked fifth all-time in the Club in the U18 category.
Full results from the championship are available at: https://ottawalions.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2023_Legion_National_Results.pdf
Updated Club rankings are available at: https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/
Heading into last weekend’s Ontario U14/U16/U18 Championship Lions athletes held 13 individual provincial age class records. However, after Jorai Oppong-Nketiah stepped off the Western Alumni Stadium track following the 100 metres, the total had risen to 14.
In her first year of track and field competition at the club level, Jorai has made a big splash, and last weekend’s performance was just the latest on her list of summer success.
With a silver medal from the provincial U20 championship last month, Jorai was certainly a favourite to take top spot in the U16 girls 100 metre event. She started off the competition on the right foot as she broke a 40 year old Club record for both U16 and U18 athletes with a time of 11.85 seconds.
Unwilling to let her new record last as long as the previous one, Oppong-Nketiah trimmed another seven hundredths of a second off her best in the final. With a blazing time of 11.78 seconds, the soon-to-be grade 10 student was not only Ontario Champion, but she had also bested Makenzy Pierre-Webster’s seven year old provincial U16 record of 11.81 seconds.
While Athletics Canada does not keep national records for the U16 age category, we have discovered that Jorai’s time is the second fastest ever recorded in Canada by a 15-year-old girl. The top time of 11.58 seconds belongs to Saskatchewan’s Jenni Hucul.
Oppong-Nketiah’s gold was 1 of 19 medals won by the Lions over the weekend – including 6 gold.
Taking home half of those gold medals was Daniel Cova. The 16-year-old took top spot in each of the 2000 metre steeplechase and 3000 metres with a two second margin of victory in each race. Cova’s 3000 metre winning time of 8 minutes and 46.67 seconds is the ninth fastest in Club history in the U18 category.
The Louis-Riel student also added a gold medal as part of the sprint medley relay. Running the anchor leg, Cova helped the team of Safwan El Mansari, Janssen Assogba, and Ladi Ogunmekan set a new U18 Club record time of 3 minutes and 36.64 seconds.
Rounding out his haul, Cova all garnered a bronze in the 1500 metres to bring his total to four.
Also pulling in multiple medals were Timeo Atonfo and Maxime Cazabon. Together the pair combined for a further seven medals.
Atonfo was a double bronze medalist in the horizontal jumps. The Gisele-Lalonde student produced jumps measuring 6.64 and 13.80 metres in the long jump and triple jump respectively.
In addition to his jumping success, Atonfo was also a key member of the medal winning 4×100 and 4×400 metre teams. Running lead off in the 4×100 with Ladi Ogunmekan, Mukhtar Raji, and Janssen Assogba, Atonfo picked up a silver medal with a 43.99 second clocking. Teammed with Eric Zielonka, Jonah Gratton, and Ethan Lavictoire, Timeo picked up a second silver in the 4×400 metre relay.
Competing in his first Ontario Championship, Maxime Cazabon made a big splash as the 13-year-old won a full set of medals. He kicked things off with a silver in Friday night’s 300 metre final by running a Club U14 record of 39.29 seconds. Cazabon added a bronze in the 80 metres before ending with gold in the high jump following a 1.60 metre clearance.
Other medalists from the weekend include the following:
Bronze – Safwan El Mansari (U18 400m)
Silver – Atalia Williams (U14 80m)
Silver – Sofia Lefaivre,Maya Allibon,Kyre Lauter,Bianca Arabackyj (U16 4x800m)
Bronze – Charlie Mortimer,Luke Van Brabant,Yousef Kamel,Yusuf Elmasry (U16 4x800m)
Gold – Charlie Mortimer (U16 1500m Steeplechase)
Bronze – Eric Zielonka (U18 400m Hurdles)
Silver – Atalia Williams (U14 150m)
Complete results from the Championship can be found on our website.
For updated club rankings, please visit https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/
This year’s Ontario Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championships was undoubtedly the best in recent memory for the Lions. Club athletes took home an eye popping 29 medals including 18 gold. On top of that, six meet records were set including a brand new provincial masters record.
Taking home two of those medals was the ageless jumper, Stan Seitz. At 75 years young, Seitz set an M75 record in the high jump with his clearance of 1.20 metres. A three time champion in the high jump at the Canadian Masters Championships, Stan equalled the previous record of 1.10 metres on his opening height before making successive first attempt clearances at 1.15 and 1.20 metres.
Seitz’s other gold came from the pole vault where he cleared 2.35 metres for victory.
Making a splash in his masters championship debut, Andrew Heffernan set three championship records. Heffernan, who is more widely known for his success guiding athletes on the international para athletics circuit, set meet records in both the M30 800 and 1500 metre events.
Heffernan posted a winning time of 2 minutes and 3.09 seconds in the 800, trimming more than two seconds off the previous championship mark set by Trevor Van Nest in 2002. Teammate Fritzlor Auguste picked up the silver in 2:11.90.
Over 1500 metres, the pair of Heffernan and Auguste finished first and second respectively. Andrew’s winning time of 4 minutes and 24.07 seconds was 19 seconds faster than the previous mark set by Jimmy Semes in 2011. Fritzlor finished in 4:49.37.
Teaming up with Michael Conway, Gilles Frenette, and Auguste, Heffernan got his third Championship record in the M30 4×400 metre relay. The quartet took the gold in a time of 3 minutes and 52.20 seconds.
In another relay, the team of Lionale Nahum, Neil Fine, Michel Smith, and Sancho McCann set a new championship record in the M35 4×100 metre relay. The quartet got the stick around in a time of 50.12 seconds.
Rounding out the championship records for the Lions, William McLeish set a new mark in the M30 5000 metres. His time of 16 minutes and 6.02 seconds bested the previous standard of 16:22.21 set by Dan Way in 2017. McLeish was also the lead in a Lions sweep of the podium with clubmates Jay Sneddow (16:46.27) and Sam Shi (17:33.10) finishing in the silver and bronze medal positions respectively.
Below is the full list of Lions medal winners from the Championship.
Ashley Crawford – Silver 100m (W35)
Danette Nearing-Guibord – Gold 100m (W60)
Wendy Alexis – Gold 100m (W65)
Sancho McCann – Gold 100m (M40)
Ashley Crawford – Silver 200m (W35)
Danette Nearing-Guibord – Gold 200m (W60)
Wendy Alexis – Gold 200m (W65)
Sancho McCann – Gold 200m (M40)
Erinn Joseph – Gold 400m (W30)
Ashley Crawford – Gold 400m (W35)
Jodi Forster-Molstad – Bronze 400m (W45)
Andrew Heffernan – Silver 400m (M30)
Michael Conway – Silver 400m (M35)
Marino Sani – Bronze 400m (M60)
Andrew Heffernan – Gold 800m (M30)
Fritzlor Auguste – Silver 800m (M30)
Michael Conway – Gold 800m (M35)
Andrew Heffernan – Gold 1500m (M30)
Fritzlor Auguste – Silver 1500m (M30)
William McLeish – Gold 5000m (M30)
Jay Sneddon – Silver 5000m (M30)
Sam Shi – Bronze 5000m (M30)
Gilles Frenette – Gold 3000m Steeplechase (M45)
Neil Fine – Gold High Jump (M35)
Stan Seitz – Gold High Jump (M75)
Stan Seitz – Gold Pole Vault (M75)
Tom Pincombe – Silver Discus (M45)
Lionel Nahum,Neil Fine,Michel Smith,Sancho McCann – Gold 4x100m (M35)
Michael Conway,Gilles Frenette,Fritzlor Auguste,Andrew Heffernan – Gold 4x400m (M30)
For updated Club rankings, please visit https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/
For complete results from the Championship, please visit Ontario Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championship
Sunday was about redemption for Connor Fraser. Just two days removed from his Canadian Track and Field Championship debut, the 19-year-old was looking to make up for a lacklustre performance in the discus and bring home that eluded him in the discus.
Coming off a pair of victories in both the discus and shot put at the Ontario U20 Championships, Fraser was expected to challenge for the double in Langley. After nerves got the best of him, the Carleton University student could only sit and watch the discus final Friday night as he finished ninth overall.
The disappointment from Friday’s result ignited a fire in Fraser for Sunday’s shot put competition. More relaxed, he opened the competition with a throw of 16.17 metres to take the early lead. After getting bumped to second in round two, Connor unleashed a personal best throw of 17.10 metres in round four to seal his top spot in the competition.
For good measure, Fraser added another personal best in the final round with a throw of 17.11 metres. The throw makes him only one of three Lions U20 athletes to ever throw over 17 metres with the 6 kilogram ball, and the first not named Nedow.
Staying in the field, Maria Okwechime produced the top performance in the open women’s long jump with a leap of 6.13 metres. The distance equalled Maria’s personal best from earlier in the season at the Bob Vigars Classic. Despite producing the top jump of the competition, Maria did not take home the gold medal as she is not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
On the track, the senior women repeated as Canadian champions in the 4×400 metre relay. This year, the team of Doyin Ogunremi, Sia Mahajan, Sydney Smith and Alexandra Telford topped the field with their 3 minutes and 50.18 second clocking.
Upgrading their position from 2022, the men’s 4×400 metre team took home the silver medal. Bertwin Ben-Smith, Stephen Evans, Lucas Zanetti, and David Moulongou got the stick around the track four times in 3 minutes and 15.81 seconds – the fastest time for the year by any Lions team.
Rounding out the medal haul was the quartet of Seiyf Gebara, Bertwin Ben-Smith, David Adeleye, and Michael Pinnock, who got the baton around the track in a 41.82 seconds to take the bronze medal in the senior men’s 4×100 metres.
A quartet of 400 metre hurdlers nearly added a few more medals to the tally. Alexandra Telford finished fourth for the second year in a row in the senior women’s race with a personal best of 58.51 seconds. In the U20 races, it was a pair of U18 runners that nearly stole the show. Both Quinn Coughlin and Zachary Jeggo just missed the podium in fourth place. Rounding out the quartet, David Moulongou placed fifth in the senior men’s event with a time of 53.97 seconds.
Full results from the Championship are available on our website.
Updated Lion rankings are available at https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/
Focus. It’s one word to describe the transformation that’s been on display in Stephen Evans’ running this season. A year removed from a disappointing exit in the 800 metre preliminaries at the Canadian Championships, Evans attacked the 2023 season with a focus not seen in the 11 years he has run with the Lions.
Saturday evening Evans was rewarded for his focus as he became the first male in Club history ever to win a medal over 800 metres at the Canadian Track and Field Championships.
In one of the most exciting finals of the Championship, Evans produced a kick for the ages to finish third across the line. Sitting back in sixth place as the runners entered the final homestretch, the former USports Champion began running down the field one by one culminating in an eye popping clocking of 1 minute and 47.02 seconds.
Stephen’s time from Saturday’s final also bettered his two week old Club 800 metre record.
Also finding their way to the podium Saturday evening was 21-year-old David Adeleye who ran his way to a third place finish in the men’s 110 metre hurdles. It was no clear path for Adeleye, who not only had to battle the 10 barriers in his own lane, but also narrowly avoided an errant hurdle from the lane next to him that had been hit by Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner.
Unscathed, Adeleye made it across the line in 13.98 seconds. It was the third fastest performance of the University of Toronto student’s career.
Staying in the hurdles, Keira Christie-Galloway finished in the top five of the women’s 100 metre hurdles. Christie-Galloway was clocked in a windy 13.30 seconds.
Lizzy Vroom followed her silver medal performance in the steeplechase with an eighth place finish in Saturday’s U20 1500 metre final. Vroom was eighth across the finish line, stopping the clock at 4 minutes and 33.79 seconds – nearly two seconds under her previous best.
Finishing the evening off on the track, Sydney Smith finished seventh at 800 metres in her first national final. The 26-year-old Smith finished the two laps event in a time of 2 minutes and 6.13 seconds.
Friday night at the 2023 Canadian Track and Field Championships in Langley, BC was headlined by the 100 metre finals and Bianca Borgella was one of the stars of the evening.
Fresh off a pair of medals at the World Para Athletics Championship, Borgella was lined up against fellow Team Canada athletes Marissa Papaconstantinou and Shariauna Haase in the para ambulatory section. The University of Ottawa student was in command of the race from the gun, crossing the line in a time of 12.14 seconds.
To fairly determine the standings in the para ambulatory event, each athlete is graded against the Raza Points Table to standardise performances across disabilities.
While Borgella was first across the line, she took home the silver as her score was 14 points behind Papaconstantinou’s, who competes with a prosthetic limb.
Beyond the sprint final, Friday’s competition was all a game of “survive and advance” for the Lions. In total, eight athletes advanced to national finals on Saturday.
Starting with the sprint hurdles in the morning, Keira Christie-Galloway comfortably won her heat in a time of 13.36 seconds to qualify third fastest to the final. It was an identical result for David Adeleye as he won his heat in 14.09.
Next to qualify were a pair of U18 athletes running up at their first U20 national championship.
Zachary Jeggo was quick to prove he belonged among his older counterparts, unleashing a massive personal best time of 48.78 seconds for 400 metres to earn the second automatic qualifying spot out of his heat. Jeggo’s performance moved him to number three all-time in the Club for U18 athletes.
Running out of lane eight, Quinn Coughlin executed her game plan and also earned her spot in the U20 400 metre final via a second place finish. The Opeongo student crossed the line in a time of 57.29 – the fourth fastest among all qualifiers.
Also at 400 metres, Lauren Gale was the top finisher in her heat with a time of 52.41 to advance.
After missing out on the national championship final a year ago, 800 metre runners Stephen Evans and Sydney Smith were poised to right the wrong Friday night.
Evans, who recently broke the Club record at the distance, looked in full control throughout the two lap race, nabbing the second auto qualifier in his heat with a 1:48.54 clocking.
Meanwhile, Smith had a different path to Saturday’s final. Finding herself in a tightly contested battle, the Ontario champion escaped a pair of near falls as she placed fourth in the first of two semi-finals with a time of 2 minutes and 6.32 seconds. After a short wait on pins and needles, Smith’s spot was confirmed as the fastest non-automatic qualifier.
Last into the finals was Lizzy Vroom. The U20 steeplechase silver medalist got through to the 1500 metre final as one of the four non-automatic qualifiers. Vroom finished in a time of 4 minutes and 38.14 seconds.
Friday also featured the culmination of the two day heptathlon with two Lions in action. Kathryn Moreland recorded a score of 3710 points to place ninth – a personal best by 101 points for the 18-year-old. Teammate Ella Durno placed 12th with 3139 points.
You can watch the championships live on AthleticsCanada.tv or follow the live results at https://live.athletics.ca/meets/26525
The 2023 Canadian Track and Field Championships kicked off with a bang Thursday – quite literally. Distance night at the championships featured rhythmic drummers along with some illuminating pyrotechnics to encourage and celebrate the runners in the 3000 metre steeplechase and 5000 metre events.
Among those being celebrated were a pair of Lions in Kevin Robertson and Elizabeth Vroom who brought home the Club’s first medals of the Championship. Each took a different route to the podium.
Robertson, who finished in 8 minutes and 37.94 seconds, bided his time for the majority of the race as he nestled in to fifth. That all changed when the bell rang to signal one lap to go. The NCAA All-American immediately took off, surging past Olympian John Gay within 20 metres, but would need to wait until the final barrier before he was able to move past British Columbia’s Cole Disdale and sprint his way to his first senior national medal.
It was a silver medal in 10 minutes and 45.46 seconds for the defending U20 women’s steeplechase champion, Vroom. Unlike Robertson, the Queen’s University student ran to the front of the pack right from the gun. She was quite content to stay there even after momentarily relinquishing the lead after a mid race fall in the water pit. However, as the event progressed, the Calgary Spartans’ Sorcha Shiu was able to use her 2:05 800 metre speed to move past Vroom for gold.
Earlier in the day, Gavin Redwood-Wheeler placed sixth in the U20 men’s discus with a best throw of 43.67 metres. Teammate Connor Fraser placed ninth at 39.40 metres.
In qualifying, four Lions advanced into their respective event semi-finals. Bertwin Ben-Smith (senior men), Doyin Ogunremi (senior women) and Koree Yach (U20 women) all advanced in the 400 metres, while Victoria McIntyre moved on in the senior women’s 100 metres.
You can watch the championships live on AthleticsCanada.tv or follow the live results at https://live.athletics.ca/meets/26525
What seemed like an eternity away back in September of 2022 has finally arrived. After countless hours of mental and physical preparation the time has come to shine on the brightest of domestic stage as the 2023 Bell Canadian Track and Field Championships kick off Thursday morning in Langley, BC. A total of 47 Lions are set to compete over the four-day competition for Senior, Para and Under-20 athletes.
Athletes will be pushing to improve upon last year’s performance where the Lions took home a total of 19 medals across the three championship categories including a Canadian Club Record in the women’s 4×400 metre relay.
Four individual medalists from 2022 return to Langley including two defending champions – Bianca Borgella and Elizabeth Vroom.
Fresh off her two-medal performance at the World Para Athletics Championships earlier this month, Borgella will be a favourite to repeat her two-gold performance from a year ago. The 20-year-old, who competes in the T13 category for visual impairment, will be contesting the para-ambulatory 100 and 200 metres this weekend. She enters both competitions with the top seed.
Vroom dominated last year’s field in the U20 women’s 3000 metre steeplechase and will be looking to become the first Lion to defend a U20 championship since 2013 when Adam Palamar won his second straight 1500 metre title. The Queen’s University student is well positioned, coming off a commanding steeplechase victory at the Ontario U20 Championships and holds the fastest qualifying performance entering the competition.
A pair of silver medalists from last year in Lauren Gale and Audrey Goddard will also be looking to return to the podium this weekend.
Gale, whose silver came over 400 metres a year ago, will contest both the 200 and 400 metres in Langley. The member of last year’s World Championship team enters ranked second and fifth respectively in the two events this season.
For Goddard a return to Langley may have looked out of the cards earlier this season. The 19-year-old heptathlete suffered a broken collarbone in the spring, and only returned to competition this month. While having not contested a combined event competition since the USports Championship, she remains a medal contender.
Looking to make a splash on the national stage is Conner Fraser. Competing in his first Canadian Championship, the 19-year-old thrower is a force to be reckoned with in both the shot put and discus throw after a pair of recent personal bests catapulted him to the top of the podium at the Ontario Championships. Fraser’s performances two weeks ago have him ranked second nationally entering this weekend’s championship.
A handful of senior athletes are looking to make a splash on the national scene.
One week removed from his victory at the NACAC U23 Track and Field Championships, Kevin Robertson will contest the 3000 metre steeplechase in his first nationals since winning the U20 title in 2019. A student at Syracuse University, Robertson set the Club U23 record earlier this season with a time of 8 minutes and 37.26 seconds. He enters the competition ranked fifth.
Also competing at nationals for the first time since 2019 is Keira Christie-Galloway. The 23-year-old posted a personal best of 13.01 seconds earlier this season to win the 100 metre hurdles at the Western Athletic Conference Championship. Her performance has her ranked third entering the competition.
Finally, Stephen Evans will be hunting for the elusive national medal. The former USports champion is coming off a Club record of 1:47.16 for 800 metres less than two weeks ago in Victoria. Evans enters as the fifth seed with a third just two tenths ahead.
You can catch all of this weekend’s action live on AthleticsCanada.tv and follow live results at live.athletics.ca.
Of course, stay tuned to ottawalions.com and all our social media accounts to keep up with every Lions related over the course of the weekend.
