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It was deja vu all over again for Lions coaches this past weekend as they witnessed another provincial title fall just out of their grasp as the Under-18 team placed second at the Ontario Championships despite garnering eight medals – including three gold.  Like it did for the senior athletes, the title was decided in the final event, the men’s 4×400 metre relay, with the Lions placing fourth and coming up two points shy of London Western’s winning total of 116 points. In the three provincial championships held so far this summer, the margin of victory has been two points or less.

The women’s 4×800 metre relay winning team of Louise Stoneham, Gillian Porter, Koree Yach, and Amelia Van Brabant combined for a massive 46 of the Lions 114 point total. The quartet finished five seconds clear of second place in a time of nine minutes and 46.21 seconds – good enough for fifth on the Club’s age group rankings. Individually, Stoneham and Porter took the top two spots in the 2000 metre steeplechase, both in personal best efforts, finishing in times of 7:21.78 and 7:29.90 respectively.

Stoneham picked up five more points with her fourth place finish in the 3000 metres as Van Brabant nabbed a silver in the second best performance of her life – 10:05.40. Van Brabant, who has seen significant improvements across all her events this summer also nabbed a new personal best at 1500 metres, 4:39.85, to pick up a fourth place finish at five more team points.

The other gold medal of the weekend came from Adriano Padoin-Castillo as he took top honours in the steeplechase. The Immaculata High School student trimmed more than half a minute off his previous best to cross the line in six minutes and 36.87 seconds – just a fraction of a second ahead of Laurel Creek’s Nathan Paul. Padoin-Castillo also ran the lead leg of the 4×800 metre relay that place fourth.

Other individual medals came from Thomas Kukla-Colby and Audrey Goddard, who each took home bronze. Kukla-Colby set a new best of 56.63 seconds over the 400 metre hurdles for his third place finish, while Goddard cleared 1.45 metres for third in the high jump.

The women’s 4×100 and 4×400 metre relay teams picked up the final two bronze’s of the weekend.

Click here for full results.

For the second time in two weeks, the Lions found themselves in a tight battle for the team title at the provincial championship. As is known to be the case, the team title was decided in the final event – the men’s 4×400 metre relay, where the Lions entered tied with Royal City Track Club from Guelph at 103 points. However. Royal City’s one second victory gave them the overall crown with the quartet of Luca Nicoletti, Leewinchell Jean, Fabrice Nonez, and David Moulongou grabbing silver – one of 12 medals for the Lions over the weekend.

The one of the most decorated athletes of the Championship was Alexandra Telford, who took home a total of three medals, including two gold. While earning relay medals in her teenage years, the 25-year-old took home her first individual provincial medal Saturday as she ran away with gold in the 400 metres. Running just off her personal best, Telford finished in 55.85 seconds, nearly a second ahead of silver. Teammate Helana Jovic also picked up a bronze in the race.

Telford would set a new lifetime best Sunday in the 400 metre hurdles, placing third in 1:00.35 to move to ninth on the Club’s all-time list. Jovic would finish three spots back in sixth with 1:02.50. The pair would teamed up with Doyin Ogunremi and Madison Clarke to take the gold in both the 4×400 metre relay.

Bianca Borgella also took home a trio of golds as she captured both the para ambulatory 100 and 400 metres. The latter in a new Canadian T13 record of 1:04.30. The 18-year-old just missed her Canadian record in the 100 metres with her 12.76 clocking. Borgella also helped anchor the 4×100 metre relay team of Vanessa Lu Langley, Doyin Ogunremi, and Kelly Brennan to gold in thee 4×100 metres.

Topping the podium in the 3000 metre steeplechase was Nicholas Pedersen who was making his debut at the distance. The 21-year-old had not run the steeplechase since placing sixth at the 2018 OFSAA Championships over the 2000 metre distance. Pedersen’s time of nine minutes and 44.80 seconds was more than a minute ahead of silver and moves him to 16th best in Club history.

Leewinchell Jean produced a lifetime best to take silver in the 400 metre hurdles. The University of Windsor student crossed the line in 52.86 seconds, dropping nine tenths of a second from his previous best set winning OFSAA gold in 2019.

Other medals from the weekend included a bronze from Stephen Evans in the 800 metres and gold from the 4×100 metre relay team of David Adeleye, Luca Nicoletti, David Moulongou, and Bertwin Ben-Smith.