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While by many accounts, shot putter Tim Nedow is a mild mannered man, this morning at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, the Brockville native showed he has a flare for the dramatics en route to winning his second consecutive bronze medal at the quadrennial event.
While a third round effort of 20.65m had Nedow nearing in on the podium, he sat fourth most of the competition. In fact, the five time Canadian champion slipped to fifth entering the final round after Nigeria’s Chukwuebuka Enekwechi leap frogged him into silver with a personal best heave of 21.14m in round five.
[getty src=”943677162″ width=”594″ height=”411″ tld=”ca”] Nedow was undeterred by the event, telling Athletics Canada, “I know what it takes to get a medal. I was pretty pumped up; I wasn’t nervous at all. I had to go for it.”
Went for it he did, using all the powerful levers of his 6’7″ frame to hurl the 16 pound steel ball out to 20.91m and cement his position on the podium.
“I’m pretty happy with that throw. I’m a pretty consistent guy, every throw is about 20.50 metres, but I knew this competition was going to be pretty strong. As you can see, second through sixth was all over 20.50 metres. I’m pretty happy with how that turned out right now,” Nedow told Athletics Canada following the competition.
Lions are back in action on day three of the athletics competition down under as Sultana Frizell goes for her third straight Commonwealth Games Gold in the hammer throw.
 
 

It was as simple as 1,2,3 or maybe just 1 for shot putter Tim Nedow as one throw is all it took for him to secure his spot in the Commonwealth Games final. Nedow, the defending bronze medalist in the event, unleashed a throw of 19.92m in the early hours of Sunday morning (Ottawa time) to make quick work of qualifiying.
The Brockville native will return to the circle at 6:30am on Monday morning (Ottawa time) for a shot at another Commonwealth medal. Nedow’s biggest competition should come from the defending champion O’Dayne Richards of Jamaica and New Zealand’s Tom Walsh who shattered Richards’ Games Record in qualifiying.
The news was less positive for sprinter Charifa Labarang who pulled up 50m into her 100m heat on day one of athletics competition at the Games. Following her race, Labarang took to Instagram to thank everyone for their love and support, declaring “Unfortunately, due to a hamstring injury the games are over for me. This is still an amazing learning and inspirational experience that I will cherish forever.” The University of Ottawa graduate had been scheduled to run the 200m and 4x100m for her native Cameroon.
Also on the sprint straightaway, Oluwasegun Makinde placed 36th overall in men’s 100m qualifiying with a time of 10.59 seconds. The Colonel By graduate will now shift his focus to the 4x100m relay which will begin Thursday night (Ottawa time).

It seemed every time you turned around this weekend at the Canadian Masters Indoor Championships, another Lions athlete was stepping onto the podium. A total of 16 medals were won by club athletes over the two day event including an impressive 10 gold.
Masters championship veterans Wendy Alexis and Lawrence Williams each picked up a trio of medals in the sprint events. Alexis was a double gold medalist in both the 50m and 60m sprint events for the 60 and over category. Her third medal was a silver in the 200m where she finished a mere four hundredths of a second between rival Karla Del Grande in a time of 29.12 seconds. For perspective, the age graded equivalent is 23.02.
Williams continued to demonstrate his sprinting range, winning a full set of medals across the 50m, 200m and his specialty – the 400m where he won gold. A former world masters champion, Williams took the men’s 45 and over 400m in a time 55.10 to claim victory by nearly half a second.
Natacha Dupuis made quite the splash in her first Canadian indoor championship completing the sprint treble by winning gold in the 60m, 200m and 400m distances. The 38 year old’s winning times were 8.55 seconds (60m), 29.34 (200m) and 67.05 (400m).
Also picking up multiple medals was Stan Seitz who claimed gold in both the pole vault and pentathlon for men 70 and over. In the men’s 50 and over category, Serge Faucher improved upon his bronze medal performance in the 400m a year ago to claim gold in a time 56.38 seconds while equaling his silver in the 200m. The 53 year old also joined up with Claude Faucher, Jim Dyck and Paul Osland to set a new Canadian record in the 4x400m with a time of 3:50.24.
Other medals from the championship came from Hazel Harding in the women’s 40 and over 400 (bronze) and Robert Muir in the men’s 50 and over 3000m (silver)

The final day of the USports Championship in Windsor yielded the first medals of the event for the Lions with both Thomas Nedow and Stephen Evans each picking up silver medals and All-Canadian accolades.
Nedow kicked things off with a new lifetime best of 15.98m in the shot put to finish in the silver medal position. The University of Guelph freshman produced three of the four farthest throws his career Saturday with his second and third best throws exceeding 15.85m. Nedow had looked to move across the 16 metre barrier in his fifth round effort, but it was narrowly ruled a fault.
Evans notched the University of Ottawa’s first ever men’s national medal over 600m in one of the most dramatic finishes of the championship. Coming off the final corner it was actually Carleton University’s Sebastian Saville in the lead with Evans dueling Guelph’s Thomas Land for second.
In the final 20 metres Saville began to tie up as Land jolted towards the finish with Evans following closely behind to finish in a time of 1:19.50. Steps behind was Saville who was edged off the podium by an agonizing one one hundredth of a second – crossing the line in 1:19.76. It was Saville’s second straight fourth place finish in the 600m final.
The final Lions result from the final day came in the penultimate event – the women’s 4x400m. The quartet representing the University of Ottawa was almost identical to the record setting 4x800m squad from the night before with Keili Shepherd replaced by OUA 60m finalist Stephanie Gould, who ran lead off.
The team was once again led by Maeliss Trapeau who produced a 56.0 second third leg to put the team in medal contention. Despite falling to fifth in the final standings, the quartet of Gould, Trapeau, Madison Clarke and Sophia Skorenky finished a time of 3:49.16 seconds, just off the school record of 3:48.58 set in 2012 on the banked track of New York City’s Armory. Using USports flat track conversion, Saturday’s performance would equate to 3:46.16.
South of the border at the NCAA Division II Championships, Ashlea Maddex placed 5th in the final of the 60m hurdles in a time of 8.38 seconds. For her placing, the Cal State Los Angeles freshmen earned her first All-American honours.
 

Eight lady Lions stepped on to the track and in to the field on day 2 of the USports Championships and five of them stepped off with record setting performances.
University of Ottawa freshman Keira Christie-Galloway kicked things off with a bang Friday, winning her 60m hurdles semi-final with a time of 8.38 seconds. An hour later she would return for the final and equal her lifetime best and Gee Gee record of 8.31 seconds to finish fourth in one of the most hotly contested USports finals in recent memory. Less than a hundredth of a second separated silver from fourth, with Christie-Galloway just 0.002 seconds behind third place.
The other record on the day came from the Gee Gees 4x800m relay team, which smashed the previous school best by more than four seconds. The quartet of Sophia Skorenky, Madison Clarke, Maeliss Trapeau and Keili Shepherd finished fourth with a time of 8 minutes 54.31 seconds.
Running the fastest leg of any competitor in the race, Trapeau put the Gee Gees in medal contention heading into the final exchange after completing four laps of the 200m track in 2:08.45. However, in the final 200m of the race, Shepherd was past by former Gee Gee Emma Galbraith, a graduate student at Laval, for bronze.
The previous record of 8:58.73 was set in 2015 by the team of Charlotte Gardner, Chelsea Gilles, Clare McGrath, and Jennifer Murawsky en route to an OUA bronze medal.
Also on Friday, Leanna Garcia equaled her best ever nationals finish with a sixth place finish in the shot put with a best of 13.39m. Christina Hertner was 10th with a best of 12.13m.

With day one of the 2018 USports Championship kicking off on International Women’s Day, it seemed only fitting the first even was the women’s weight throw where two Lions were national finalists.
Leanna Garcia was the top Lion on the day, finishing sixth, based on her final round effort of 15.45m. The heave marked a new lifetime best for Garcia, who took the year off from the event in 2017. A fifth year human kinetics student at the University of Windsor narrowly edged her way into the final, requiring a seasonal best effort in the third round just to advance. Garcia will close out her collegiate career this evening in the shot put.
Right behind Garcia, in seventh place, was Ty Coulter who matched their pre-meet ranking. Coulter’s best throw of 15.09m was well off their University of Ottawa record of 15.87m, but marked the highest ever finish in a throwing event for a Gee Gee.
The only other event on day one to feature a Lion was the 600m where both Sebastian Saville from Carleton University and Stephen Evans from the University of Ottawa qualified for Saturday’s final. Saville was the top qualifier, winning heat two in a time of 1:19.20 while Evans was second in the first heat in 1:20.12 and advanced as one of the fastest losers.
In the women’s race, University of Ottawa freshman Maeliss Trapeau narrowly missed out on making her first national final, finishing one spot out in seventh. The Lycée Claudel posted her fastest time ever on a flat 200m track, crossing the line in 1:31.27. Teammate Madison Clarke was ninth in a time of 1:31.94. The pair will return to action Friday night in the 4x800m final where they will be gunning for a spot on the podium.
Also on day one was the start of the men’s heptathlon. Gee Gees fifth year senior Tolu Makinde got off to a great start in the seven event contest with a seasonal best effort of 7.09 seconds in the 60m. However, the joy was short lived as Makinde had the misfortune of triple faulting in the long jump and registering zero points. He currently sits in 11th position with a total of 1948 points.
Action resumes this afternoon at the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse in Windsor at 3:45pm with the heptathlon 60m hurdles.

The Ottawa Lions went five for five at last weekend’s Ontario Masters Championships at York University. The small contingent of three athletes combined for three gold, one silver and one bronze.
The medal haul was lead by sprinter Joseph Scatliffe who pulled off the sprint double by claiming victory in both the 60m and 200m distances in the 45 and over category. The 45 year old Scatliffe won his 60m title in 7.69 seconds, while his 26.35 clocking to win the 200m was nearly half a second ahead of his closest competitor.
Also claiming two medals at the championship was Hazel Harding who picked up a bronze and silver in the women’s 40 and over 200m and 400m events respectively.
The final medal of the competition came from Serge Faucher, a world masters medalist. Faucher claimed gold in the men’s 50 and over 400m in a time of 57.24 seconds.
The indoor season wraps up for our masters athletes this coming weekend at the Canadian Championship.
 

This past weekend was busy with conference championships for universities both north and south of the border with Lions athletes capturing a total of 15 medals.
At the Big 12 indoor championships, Iowa State junior Erinn Stenman-Fahey ran her way to a silver medal in the 1000m by shattering her previous best with a 2:46.18 clocking. The time improved upon her previous record, set last month, by more than three seconds. The Bell High School graduate’s performance also moved her to number three in club history behind the likes of Melissa Bishop and Anna Gunasekera. Stenman-Fahey was also the lead runner on the Iowa State gold medal winning distance medley relay.
At the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship in Windsor, Gee Gee freshman Keira Christie-Galloway kicked things off with a bang, speeding her way to a silver medal in the 60m hurdles. Christie-Galloway’s time of 8.31 eclipsed the previous Gee Gee record of 8.35 seconds set by Devyani Biswal en route to winning OUA gold in 2016. Keira is also now ranked second in club history behind Olympian Leslie Tashlin who holds the club record at 8.11 seconds from 1996.
A pair of Lions captured their first individual OUA medals in the 600m. Stephen Evans followed up his personal best performance from the week prior to capture silver in the men’s event by Guelph’s Thomas Land. On the women’s side, Madison Clarke turned in the second best performance of her life to pick up bronze in a time of 1:31.62. Clarke, was also instrumental in the Gee Gee women picking up their third OUA bronze since 2015 in the 4x800m relay.
Looking to secure his spot in the upcoming USport Championships, multi eventer Tolu Makinde put together the best two days of his life to secure silver in the seven event heptathlon. Makinde’s score of 4533 points was a more than 300 point improvement over his previous best this year.
While Ty Coulter’s best effort in the weight throw fell just short of her week’s old school record, the 15.74m heave was still good enough to capture OUA silver. The second year criminology student has had the best season of their young career, with nearly every performance exceeding their best first year effort. As well, Coulter has thrice broken the Gee Gee record in the event.
Further east, at the Quebec University Championships in Sherbrooke, the Carleton Ravens pulled in seven medals including picking up bronze in all three of the men’s relays.
The one constant across all three relays was the brothers Saville making the younger Thomas one of three Ravens to ever be a triple medalist at the RSEQ championships, including former Raven Telvin Tavernier and Thomas’ old brother Sebastian. In fact, Sebastian also picked up a silver in the 600m event to capture a stunning four medals on the weekend.
Sprinter Emmanuel Nwokobia, a member of the 4x200m bronze winning team, also picked up a bronze in the 60m. It was Nwokobia’s third straight bronze over the distance. The final medal for the men came from Alex Maxwell, who claimed bronze in a time of 8:36.98.
The only medal from the came by way of Dani Ferguson-Jamer’s school record performance in the weight throw. The fourth year architecture student heaved the 20lb weight out to 14.61m for silver.

It was a record breaking weekend at the Louis Riel Dome as countless university athletes put the finishing touches on their conference championship preparation.
Among those demonstrating their fine form heading into this weekend’s OUA Championship in Windsor were the Maeliss Trapeau and Madison Clarke who went 1-2 in the women’s 600m event. Trapeau, a freshman at the University of Ottawa, edged out Clarke to win in a personal best time of 1:30.27. The time was nearly three seconds under her previous best set one week prior at Cornell University.
Clarke, a USport Championship participant in her rookie season with the Gee-Gees in 2017, was finished second in 1:30.98. The fourth year communications student was slightly behind her best time of the year, but remains ranked seventh nationally, right behind Trapeau and primed for a return to the national championships.
Lion veteran Charlotte Gardner finished third in a very competitive time of 1:31.48. The competition was the first of 2018 for Gardner who has had battled various ailments of late.
Also demonstrating they are prepared for the OUA Championships was Ty Coulter who extended their own University of Ottawa record in the weight throw with a throw of 15.87m. It was the fourth time Coulter has bettered the school record this season. The second year criminology student currently ranks seventh nationally.
After narrowly failing to achieve the height at a competition in Canton, New York on Friday, pole vaulter Claudine Nafaa soared over a new personal best height of 3.21m on Saturday. The clearance moved the human kinetics student to third in Gee Gee history and added 16cm to her previous best.
Also for the Gee Gees, Stephen Evans eclipsed Michael Robertson’s long standing school record in the 600m with a thrilling run of 1:18.36 to win on Saturday. Evans, a third year political science student, has had a break out season this winter where he has twice run a previous, erasing more than a second and a half of his best time from last year. He’ll enter the OUA Championships as the number two seed.
Other notable performances came from Sharelle Samuel and Bertwin Ben-Smith. The two put forth lifetime best performances over 300m Saturday. Samuel, a medalist at last summer’s Commonwealth Youth Championships, was second in a time of 39.13 seconds to equal club mate Lauren Gale’s U20 facility record.
Ben-Smith was victorious in the men’s event, winning in a personal best time of 34.58 seconds. The time puts Ben-Smith close to cracking the tenth best performance in club history, a 34.22 clocking by Olympian Oluseyi Smith.