Posts in category: National

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.