Posts in category: National

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.