Saturday night marked the second year in a row the Ottawa Lions gathered under the big top at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility to celebrate another great year of athletics at our annual awards banquet. During the most complete season since the start of the pandemic, the Lions had plenty to celebrate including a Canadian Cross Country Championship, Ontario U20 team title, and six new Canadian records by Lions athletes.
The Gilbert Awards, named in honour of Olympic champion Glenroy Gilbert, are handed out annually to the most outstanding male and female athletes in the Club for both track and field events. Saturday’s victors – Lauren Gale, David Adeleye, Audrey Goddard, and Tommy Nedow – were all first time recipients. A feat that had not occurred in more than twenty years.
Lauren Gale had a lot to celebrate during the 2021-22 season. The recent graduate of Colorado State University had a dream season that included Canadian Indoor Records at 200 (23.00) and 400 metres (51.64). In addition, Gale was part of Canada’s 4×400 metre record setting relay team at the World Indoor Championships (3:31.45).
Outdoors, Gale set Club records at 200 (22.82) and 400 metres (51.30), and anchored the Canadian Club Record 4×400 metre relay team at the Canadian Championships with a time of 3:35.46. Gale also competed in both the 200 and 400 metres at the World Championships, and was named to both the Commonwealth and NACAC Championship teams.
The 2022 season was a case of performing when it mattered for the 20-year-old David Adeleye. The University of Toronto student posted personal bests at every national event he ran this season. This included a run of 8.07 seconds in the 60 metre hurdles at the USports Championship where he would take the bronze medal. At the Canadian Championships, he ran a personal best 14.34 seconds en-route to a fifth place finish. Finally, at the Canada Summer Games, Adeleye broke the previous Games record with a personal best run of 14.03 seconds to take home the silver in the 110 metre hurdles.
Tommy Nedow’s victory kept the men’s field event Gilbert Award in the family for another year as his older brother Tim had won on the previous six occasions. Nedow was recognized for a strong season that included a silver medal in the discus at the Canadian Championships and provincial titles in both the discus and hammer throw. The Brockville native concluded his season at the Canada Summer Games where he captured a pair of bronze medals in the discus and shot put for Team Ontario.
Heptathlete Audrey Goddard took home the female field event honour, the first for a U20 woman in Club history. Goddard had a strong first season in the combined events posting the third highest mark in the Club U20 heptathlon rankings when she scored 4480 points to place second at the Canadian U20 Championships. Goddard also scored a wind-aided 4658 points to place second at the Canada Summer Games Trials.
This year’s Sam Estwick Memorial Awards – given to the top para athlete’s in the Club – went to Bianca Borgella and Joshua Cassidy.
Borgella took home Canadian titles in both the 100 (12.43) and 400 (1:02.19) metre para ambulatory races in national record times. As well, the University of Ottawa student anchored the Lions U20 Women’s 4×100 metre relay team to national gold.
Borgella followed up her performance at nationals by breaking her national 100 metre record a couple weeks later with a time of 12.37 at the Canada Summer Games Trials, which ranked her second globally in the T13 category. Similarly, over 400 metres, Borgella lowered her national record to 1:00.84 – a time which ranks seventh in the world among T13 runners.
Cassidy was a double medalist in the para wheelchair 800 (silver) and 1500 (bronze) metres at the Canadian Championships this year. As well, Cassidy represented Canada in the 1500 metres and the marathon at the Commonwealth Games, where he was also Canada’s flag bearer for the opening ceremonies.
Elizabeth Vroom was recognized as the Most Outstanding U20 Female following an exceptional rookie season in athletics. The former soccer star won all but two steeplechase events she entered this year. Vroom set a personal best of 10:40.33 to win the Canadian U20 3000 metre steeplechase title and also set an OFSAA Record of 6:52.19 to win the provincial high school title. Both performances rank second on the Club’s all-time U20 lists behind former Canadian U20 Record Holder Danelle Woods.
Vroom’s only two losses came while competing against older competition at the Ontario Open Championships and Canada Summer Games Trials. In both instances she finished in the silver medal position.
The award for Most Outstanding U20 Male was shared by a pair of 400 metre hurdlers and Canada Games teammates – David Moulongou and Luca Nicoletti.
Moulongou had a breakout season in the 400 metre hurdles that found him in both the Canadian U20 and Canada Summer Games finals. The University of Ottawa student saved his best performance for his last competition of the year, running a massive personal best of 52.79 seconds to place second at the Canada Summer Games.
After a strong high school season, Nicoletti took home bronze in the 400 metre hurdles at the Canadian U20 Championship before placing fifth at the Canada Summer Games. Provincially, Nicoletti was also a silver medalist in the U20 200 metres.
On the relay front, both Moulongou and Nicoletti helped Team Ontario to a bronze in the 4×400 at the Canada Summer Games. This was in addition to gold and silver medals in the 4×400 and 4×100 metre relays respectively at both the Canadian and Ontario U20 Championships.
Amelia Van Brabant was named Most Outstanding U18 Female for the second year in a row while Nolan Legare received the top male award.
Van Brabant was a triple medalist at the Ontario U18 Championships, taking silver over 3000 metres, bronze in the 1500 metres, and adding silver as part of the 4×800 metre team. Nationally, the Earl of March student was fifth over 3000 metres at both the Canadian U20 and Royal Canadian Legion Championships. Van Brabant was also part of the bronze medal winning 4×400 metre relay at the Canadian U20 Championships.
Legare was a double silver medalist at 400 and 800 metres at the Ontario U18 Championships. In relay action, he also took home gold in the U20 4×400 and U18 Sprint Medley relays at the provincial championships. On the national stage, Legare was 6th in the 400 metres at the Royal Canadian Legion Championships and was part of bronze medal winning 4×100 and 4×400 metre relay teams.
Quinn Coughlin, a double bronze medalist at the Ontario Summer Games, took home the award for Most Outstanding U16 Female. The award on the men’s side was shared between Royal Canadian Legion medalists Will Batley and Timeo Atonfo.
In the masters category a pair of double gold medalists at the provincial championships took home the honour – Kimberley Howitt and Club founder Bob Staveley.
Nico Pedersen was named the Club’s Most Outstanding Road Racer and coach Thomas Faour was presented with the Sean Cole Memorial Award for dedication to Club service.
In cross country, provincial champion Amelia Van Brabant took home her second award of the evening, while Zachary Sikka, the Lions top finisher at the 2021 Canadian Championships, was the men’s winner.
Other awards presented on the evening went to Alec Jeffrey and Alexandra Telford as the Most Outstanding Athletes on the Carleton Ravens varsity team. This year’s winners of the Denis Landry Award for Most Outstanding Athletes with the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees went to Sydney Smith and Thomas Senechal-Becker.
For a full list of current and past award winners, please visit the Awards and Records section of our website.
