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Even the hosts of Wednesday night’s Inferno meet in Guelph talked about weathering the storm.
However, the storm was no match for 100m hurdler Keira Christie-Galloway. The University of Ottawa student edged her way into the Canadian record books with her second place finish, behind Olympian Shermaine Williams, in a time of 13.31 seconds. Christie-Galloway trimmed one one hundredth of a second off the previous standard set by Karen Nelson at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Breaking big records is nothing new for the 18 year old, having previously bested Perdita Felicien’s long standing 100m hurdle OFSAA record in 2016.
Christie-Galloway wasn’t the only Lion to re-write the record books in Wednesday’s race as teammates Farah Jacques and Devyani Biswal each posted significant lifetime bests to move up in the club’s all-time rankings. Jacques finished just off the podium in fourth with a time of 13.36 seconds while Biswal was sixth in 13.43. The performances move the ladies to fourth and fifth respectively in club history.
While we’re sure Keira would love to celebrate her new found record in front of a home crowd in three weeks at the Canadian Championships, she will likely be boarding a flight to Tampere, Finland for the upcoming IAAF U20 Championships instead. Wednesday’s performance all but guarantees her a spot on the team which will be announced Tuesday  and depart for Europe depart two days before the preliminary rounds begin at nationals.
However, she is likely to be surrounded by a familiar face on the flight as club mate and fellow Gee-Gee Maeliss Trapeau won Wednesday’s Ottawa Twilight 800m in a lifetime best of 2:04.82. With the performance, Trapeau has moved into the number one ranking in Canada with just four days to go before the team is selected. Wednesday’s winning time also moved Trapeau into fourth in club history and currently ranks her 15th globally.
Also waiting to see if they are named to the Canadian U20 team are Sharelle Samuel (400m & 400mH) and Lauren Gale (200m & 400m) who have achieved the standard are currently are ranked in the top two nationally in one of their events.

The Lions pride brought home a total of eight medals from this past weekend’s OFSAA High School Championships at the Pan Am Stadium in Toronto. The haul was headlined by Sharelle Samuel’s double gold and Joe Fast’s collection of a gold and silver.
Samuel came tantalizingly close to better her lifetime bests on her gold medal runs in both the 400m and 400m hurdle events. The Ashbury Collegiate student was the class of the field in both events, winning the 400m on Friday in a time of 53.77 seconds, nearly a full second ahead of second place.
The level of dominance only increased Saturday in the hurdle event as the defending Commonwealth Youth bronze medalist in the event bested the field by two and a half seconds to win in a time of 59.64 seconds. The victory was the fourth in Samuel’s career at the OFSAA Championships to go along with a silver and bronze. She will head to Cambridge, Massachusetts next fall to continue her studies and athletics with the Crimson of Harvard.
In the junior boys middle distance events, Ridgemont’s Joe Fast continued to make a name for himself picking up gold in the 1500m event for the second year in a row. Fast comfortably won over Mason Jones of Thousand Islands Secondary School in 4:01.37, crossing the line nearly four seconds ahead of Jones.
Fast would have gladly used some of those surplus seconds as he battled for gold in the 3000m event with Dakota Goguen from Newmarket. Unfortunately for Fast, Goguen edged him at the line, winning in 8:56.07 to a diving 8:56.09 from Fast. After just two years, Fast has upped his OFSAA haul to four gold and two silvers.
Other medal winners included Caroline Poirier who improved on her bronze from 2017 with a silver medal jump of 3.60m in the senior girls pole vault. The clearance equaled her lifetime best set last summer. As well, Andre Alie-Lamarche of Gloucester High School was a silver medalist in the open boys 2000m steeplechase with a school record time of 5 minutes 55.77 seconds.  The previous record was held by Lion Farah Abdulkarim who won OFSAA bronze in the event back in 2014.
Brandon Ovington saved his best performance of the season for Friday’s senior boy’s discus final where he launched a personal best of 50.37m on his final throw to momentarily grab a hold of gold before being knocked down to silver on the final toss of the competition.
The final medal came from David Adeleye of Ashbury who nearly equaled his personal best en route to a bronze in the junior boys 100m hurdles.
Here are the remaining results from the Lions pride:
 

With another sun filled Ottawa Race Weekend come and gone, there were many excellent performances by Lions athletes over the two days of competition highlighted by Stuart McGregor’s 3:03:43.7 marathon debut.
The three-time Paralympic Games medalist over 800m and 1500m runs under the T13 category was the single entrant in the visually impaired marathon on race weekend, but finished 103rd overall among males. With his time, McGregor now ranks fourth globally in the T13 marathon according to current International Paralympic Committee rankings.
Fellow Paralympic medalist Jason Dunkerely was also tops in his category, winning the visually impaired 10km run in a time of 39 minutes 58 seconds. The five-time Paralympic Games medalist had a commanding margin of victory, with his nearest competitor finishing some 11 minutes behind him.
Another Lions victory came from Jenna Van Vliet who captured the women’s 5km race in a time of 18 minutes 22.7 seconds. The Carleton University graduate student was joined in the top ten by high school student Skye Pellerin (6th – 19:23.8) and the club’s favourite office manager, Jessica McCrae (7th – 19:29.9). Master’s runner Liz Maguire turned in an excellent performance of 20:15.2 to finish 15th.
In the men’s 5km race, 800m specialist Sebastian Saville showed he could run with the longer distance guys, finishing 4th overall in a time of 16:01.7, just two seconds off the podium. Teammates Jay Sneddon and Alexander Maxwell finished 6th and 8th respectively.

With high school athletes from Peterborough to Hawkesbury battling their way through two days of competition at Kingston’s CaraCo Field for the vaunted trip to OFSAA, more than 40 Lions athletes emerged successful. Among the athletes moving on are six previous OFSAA medalists led by Sharelle Samuel and Joe Fast who were each double medalists a year ago.
Samuel, a senior at Ashbury Collegiate, was dominant in victory over both the 400m and 400m hurdle disciplines. The future Harvard Crimson runner smashed former Lion Bailey Lewis’ regional record in the senior girls 400m by nearly a second and a half to win in 54.59 seconds. The time also betters the IAAF World Junior standard. Samuel also set a new standard in the 400m hurdles, nearly cracking the 60 second barrier in a time of 60.09.
Joe Fast, continued to live up to his name, taking home victories in both the junior boys 1500m and 3000m distances in comfortable fashion. Fast will certainly enter his second OFSAA track and field championship has a favourite in both events as the defending midget boys 1500m champion and a two time OFSAA cross country champion.
Another medal favourite next week at OFSAA will be Louis Riel student, Caroline Poirier. The grade 12 student added 36cm to the 10 year old senior girls pole vault record with a clearance of 3.50m. The defending OFSAA bronze medalist now holds both the junior and senior marks for the east region.
List of OFSAA qualifiers in individual events. We apologize for any omissions.

They say history has a way of repeating itself. For Lauren Gale, that’s exactly what happened at last weekend’s Colorado 4A State Track and Field Championships as she swept the sprints for the second time in three years.
The Discovery Canyon College senior was the class of the field in the 100m winning in an all conditions best of 11.79 seconds – nearly half a second up her nearest competitor.
The margin of victory grew over the 400m where the Colorado State University signee’s margin of victory ballooned to nearly two seconds. Gale’s time of 54.23 was significant considering the sideways rain that soaked competitors and fans alike to go along with the eight degree Celsius weather.
The final piece of the triple didn’t quite come as easy as Gale didn’t seal the victory until the final meters, winning in a time of 24.05 seconds, just 0.07 seconds in front of the second place finisher.

With a fury of competitions taking place over the past week, three Lions have risen to the top by either joining the club’s all-time top ten list or improving their position.
The first to make her mark was Erinn Stenman-Fahey who laid down the fastest 800m performance of her life to finish seventh at last weekend’s Big 12 Championship in Waco, Texas. The Iowa State junior finished in a time of 2 minutes 5.81 seconds, half a second faster than her previous best set this past January at a competition in Arkansas. Stenman-Fahey’s time makes her the seventh fastest in club history over the two lap event.
Also making her mark on the 800m list was Maeliss Trapeau who was victorious Swathmore Final Qualifier Meet in Pennsylvania on Tuesday in a personal best time of 2:06.60 to move to tenth all-time. Trapeau returned to the track less than 90 minutes later to set another lifetime best, this time in the 400m – finishing third in 56.73 seconds. However, that performance didn’t last long as the University of Ottawa student lowered the time again on Thursday with a victory at the Mideast Invitational in Chester, Pennsylvania with a time of 56.12 seconds.
Also yesterday, Lauren Gale began her quest for quadruple gold at the Colorado 4A state championships with a new lifetime best in the 200m. The Discovery Canyon senior won her heat in a time of 23.96 seconds to crack the 24 second barrier for the first time. The performance now moves Gale ahead of Olympian Rosey Edeh into fifth in club history. Gale was also victorious in her heats of the 100m and 400m and helped her school qualify third overall to the sprint medley relay final. The future Colorado State University Ram previously pulled off the quadruple gold in 2016. The finals take place Saturday.
Another performer of note is Adam Palamar who was victorious over 800m Saturday at the Oxy Invite in Los Angeles in a time of 1:50.78. The Canadian junior record holder over 1500m was also victorious over the same distance in his section of the USATF Distance Carnival last night – also in Los Angeles. Palamar’s time of 3 minutes 42.72 seconds was good for 15th overall.

Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic heroes, including Andre De Grasse, Brent Lakatos, Alysha Newman, Derek Drouin and Brittany Crew, descend on Ottawa July 3-8 for the 2018 Canadian Track & Field Championships.
Competition will be fierce for the prestigious honour of being crowned Canadian champion, in addition to a place on the Canadian National Team for Toronto 2018: Track & Field in the 6ix.
The event begins with free admission on July 3-4, with tickets starting as low as $20 per day for events on July 5-8 (children 12 years of age and under are free).

For more information on the 2018 Canadian Track & Field Championships, including a complete schedule of events, visit www.athletics.ca/ottawa2018.

• Venue map
• Parking map
• Frequently asked questions

*Please note, all tickets are sold as general admission.

It seems as though Saj Alhaddad has DJ Khaled pumping on repeat during his warm-ups because this season, all he does is win. Alhaddad upped his winning streak to four last night in Lynchburg, Virginia crossing the finish line in 52.58, nearly a full second ahead of Drew Pranka of Washington and Lee University.
The nearly 30 degree weather was a welcomed improvement Wednesday night after Alhaddad won Saturday in near freezing temperature while snow was falling from the sky. However, even at the University of Buffalo Invitational, the 25 year old’s victory was even more dominating, winning by nearly three seconds over the Buffalo runner.
Also on the weekend, Caroline Poirier upped her lifetime best in the pole vault to win the St. Lawrence University Twilight with a clearance of 3.65m. Despite the cold and raining temperatures outside, Poirier and teammate Claudine Nafaa got some reprieve from the elements by jumping in the indoor fieldhouse. Nafaa was third with a best clearance of 3.05m.
Outside, Jodd Nelson was able to successfully battle the elements and the competition to win the men’s 100m in a time of 10.89 seconds. He would later follow that up with a third place finish in the 200m.
Further south in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Farah Jacques continued to show improvement in the hurdles placing eighth in a time of 13.66 seconds. The performance moves the 2016 Olympic relay finalist into seventh on the all-time list. Jacques also posted a seasonal best performance of 23.74 seconds in the 200m.

The outdoor season is slowly getting under way and 400 metre hurdler Saj Alhaddad put out the message he will be one to be reckoned with in the 2018 season. The 25 year old took a wrecking ball to his previous life time best en route to winning the Duke Invitational Saturday in Durham, North Carolina in a time of 51.34 seconds.
Alhaddad’s performance not only took more than six tenths off his personal best, but was also the fastest time by a club member in the event since 1999, moving him to fourth on the club all-time list. He is currently ranked second in Canada.
Also south of the border, Erinn Stenman-Fahey was fifth and sixth respectively over 800 metres and 1500 metres  at the Cardinal Classic in Palo Alto, California. The Iowa State junior produced the sixth fastest time of her life over 800 metres, running 2 minutes 7.27 seconds while her 1500 metre performance of 4 minutes 29.55 seconds was the third fastest in her life.
Across the pond at the London Marathon, Joshua Cassidy capped a busy week, finishing ninth in a time of 1 hour 31 minutes and 41 seconds. Competing just five days after a cold and grueling Boston Marathon performance, the two time Paralympian was in the hunt for a victory almost the entire race before falling slightly off the pace in the final two kilometres, to finish 26 seconds out of first.
Elsewhere, at the Grenada Invitational in St. Georges, Divya Biswal recorded a seasonal best mark of 12.39m to finish fifth in the triple jump. As well, Farah Jacques opened up her 2018 outdoor season at the LSU Alumni Gold meet in Baton Rouge with a 13.83 second performance in the 100 metre hurdles to move to seventh in club history.