Posts in category: National

Thursday night at the Canadian Track and Field Championships has become synonymous with distance running events since the creation of “Distance Night” when Ottawa hosted the 2018 event. Featuring an array of steeplechase and 5000 metre races, two Lions athletes made a notable impact by bringing home gold and silver medals.

In her first competitive race in nearly two months, Maddie Seaby displayed no signs of rust as she dominated the U20 women’s 5000 metre race from start to finish. Despite battling swirling winds, Seaby took the lead from the start and never relinquished it, winning with a time of 17 minutes and 10.45 seconds.

“It’s a little surreal,” Seaby said of her first U20 Canadian Championship title. “I’m still taking it in.”

Seaby had a breakout season in her first year at the University of Louisville, posting the seventh fastest U20 time in Club history for 3000 metres (9:42.33) and the fourth fastest for 5000 metres (16:35.43).

With her gold medal, Seaby becomes only the third Lion to win a national U20 title over 5000 metres, and the first woman. She joins an elite list that includes Michael Woods, who was recently named to his third Canadian Olympic Team in cycling, and Sean Kaley, a member of Canada’s 2000 Olympic Team, whose senior championship record over 5000 metres was bested by Mohammed Ahmed last night.

Kevin Robertson upgraded from a bronze medal last year to silver in the 3000 metre steeplechase last night, finishing in 8 minutes and 37.91 seconds after a speedy final lap. The recent Syracuse University graduate produced the fastest final lap of the evening, closing in 64 seconds to surge from fifth at the bell to second place.

Thursday night’s medal is Robertson’s second in the steeplechase at the Centre Sportif Claude-Robillard, following his win in the U20 event at the 2019 national championships. With his complete set of Canadian Championship medals, he now ties with Danelle Woods for the Club lead in national championship steeplechase medals.

In the U20 men’s 3000 metre steeplechase, Derek Strachan placed ninth overall with a personal best time of 9:41.11.

With a massive lifetime best in the U20 men’s 5000 metres, Noah Smith ran 15:29.75 to finish 17th. Smith’s previous best had been 15:50.91 set earlier this season. 

Salome Nyirarukundo finished 23rd in the senior men’s 5000 metres, recording a seasonal best time of 16:38.07.

Off the track, Olivia Merritt finished seventh in the senior women’s javelin throw. Competing in her first national championship, the 33-year-old produced a best throw of 42.26 metres.

A busy morning on the first full day of the 2024 Canadian Track and Field Championships saw 30 athletes in action including two in finals. 

Sadie Gibert competed well in her first national final, placing fourth in the U20 women’s shot put with a best throw of 10.88 metres. The result was a marked improvement over her result at the OFSAA Championships earlier this month where finished outside of the final in 18th.

Battling swirling winds that gave a number of vaulters headaches on the runway, Balqis Chouikhi managed to clear a height of 3.10 metres to finish 10th in the U20 women’s pole vault. The 16-year-old’s clearance was the third best clearance of her life.

In this morning’s qualifying rounds, three Lions performed well enough to advance to the main portion of the Championship. First to book their ticket was Doyin Ogunremi who advanced to the senior women’s 400 metre semi-finals after a seasonal best run of 55.75 seconds. This is the third straight year in which Ogunremi has advanced to the 400 metre semi-finals.

Over 100 metres, Bianca Borgella was among those to advance to the senior women’s 100 metre final after producing a windy 11.92 second effort. Borgella, who was a bronze medalist over 100 metres at last year’s World Para Athletics Championship, will contest the open women’s semi-final Friday night before running the Para Ambulatory 100 metre final to ensure her qualification for the Paralympic Games. 

One of the newest Lions, Stephan Balson was the final qualifier out of this mornings’ session. Balson, who hails from St. Kitts’s and Nevis, advanced to the semi-finals of the U20 men’s 100 metres after placing second in his heat with a wind aided time of 10.81 seconds.  

It was a small group that travelled to Montreal last weekend for the Canadian Indoor Track and Field Championships, but that didn’t stop them from bringing a large collection of medals back to Ottawa with them. In total, Lions athletes captured nine medals over the three day event with nearly half going to the Moreland family. 

Sisters Elizabeth and Kathryn Moreland combined for four medals in Montreal – all of them gold. They each topped their respective fields in the pentathlon on Saturday, a one day test over five events. Kathryn was victorious in the U20 category with a score of 3175 points while Elizabeth totalled 2703 to top the open category. Teammate Coralie Ostertag took home silver behind Elizabeth.

To round out a busy Saturday, all three athletes teamed up with Natalie Feberova, 5th in the U20 pentathlon, to capture top spot in the open women’s 4×200 metre event. 

Elizabeth rounded out her medal haul on the final day of competition with a gold in the high jump. She cleared a height of 1.53 metres for gold, beating out Dynamique de Laval’s Samira Yao by three centimetres.

Two other Lions athletes found their way onto the podium Saturday evening with both Leewinchell Jean and Brooklyn McCormick garnering silver medals in their respective events. 

Competing in the open 60 metre hurdles, Jean lost a tight battle for gold with Durham Legion’s Ashton Colaire. His time of 8.25 seconds, the second fastest time of his season, was just five hundredth’s back of the winner. 

McCormick culminated a long indoor season with national silver at 800 metres. The graduate student at the University of Toronto finished in 2:20.59, beaten to the line by 2020 Olympian Reagan Yee in a tactical affair.

The final day of the Championship saw the Lions add the final two medals to their collection. Nicolas Belan, who has had a very strong indoor season, closed things out with a silver in U20 1500 metres. In a quintessential championship 1500, the 18-year-old lost in a quick to the line with London Western’s Liam Smith, 4:01.30 to 4:01.45. 

Balqis Chouikhi took home the final medal of the Championship as she cleared a height of 2.85 metres in the pole vault to take silver in the U18 event. Chouikhi’s medal is the first national medal for a Lions vaulter since Caroline Poirier also won silver at the 2018 Canadian U20 Championships. 

Full results from the Championship are available on our website.

Updated Club rankings can be found at https://milesrowat.shinyapps.io/ottl_rankings/