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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.

The Ottawa Lions will host their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the evening of Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at 6:00pm. The meeting will take place at École Secondaire Louis-Riel in a room to be determined. All members are invited to attend.
A short meeting of the new Board of Directors will follow the AGM.
Details
Annual General Meeting
École Secondaire Louis-Riel
1655 Bearbrook CH, Gloucester, ON
6:00pm
February 28, 2018
Room #1
Agenda
Previous AGM Minutes
2016-17 DRAFT Audited Financial Statements

It was a dominating performance by the Lionesses of Ottawa as they brought home more than two thirds of the medals from last weekend’s Bomber Invitational at Ithaca College. The 14 medal haul included 8 gold and nearly three medal sweeps.
One of the near sweeps occurred in the women’s 1000m where University of Ottawa freshman Maeliss Trapeau was victorious in a time of 2:59.31. Teammate Rebecca Brennan finished second, five seconds behind. Olivia Sidock and Holly Hicks were edged off the podium by St. Lawrence University runner, Mary Terhune.
A strong stable of female hurdlers almost rode off with all the medals in the 60m event. National finalist Devyani Biswal broke her own fieldhouse record to take gold in 8.53 seconds. Reigning USports bronze medalist Tania Bambi was second in 8.72 seconds, while Farah Jacques placed fourth in 8.82 seconds.
Jacques did manage a podium finish in her 60m speciality though, grabbing gold in 7.59 seconds while teammate Stephanie Gould was third in 7.83.
The final near sweep came in the women’s 500m where Madison Clarke, Sophia Skorenky and Mary Ollier went 1-2-4. While Clarke won the event in a personal best 1:14.92, all three ladies performances now rank among the top 10 in club history.
Another impressive performance came from high school senior Sharelle Samuel who picked up two medals on the day. After a silver medal finish in the 200m, Samuel laid down a fast time of 56.94 seconds in the 400m to win the event by more than three seconds.
The University of Ottawa women also swept both the 4x200m and 4x400m relays, with the Gee Gees B Team also managing to make it on the podium for bronze.
On the men’s side, Saj Alhaddad (1:05.19) posted a lifetime best over 500m to claim gold while Kevin M’Pindu  finished second in 1:07.98.
Also winning their event was Stephen Evans who was first across the line in the 800m, stopping the clock at 1:53.67. Lucas Zanetti finished second in the mile event.
Elsewhere, shotputter Tim Nedow continued to show he is rounding into form ahead of this spring’s Commonwealth Games. The Brockville native unleashed a massive heave of 20.82m to comfortably win the York Open in Toronto. Nedow’s mark currently ranks him seventh in the world.

As the indoor season rounds into full swing Lions athletes are showing the hours of hard work last fall are paying off with no less than seven all-time top ten club performances taking place last weekend.
The bulk of the performances came from New York City where a small but talented group were competing in the Dr. Sander Invitational at the famous Armory. University of Ottawa freshman hurdler Keira Christie-Galloway sped to her second personal best in a matter of weeks, posting a 8.41 second clocking in the 60m hurdle event to take second. also in the final were teammates Devyani Biswal (8.43 – 4th) and Tania Bambi (8.76 – 8th)
Also on the infield straightaway, sprinter Lionel Muteba cracked the all-time 60m list with a 6.81 second performance to take victory. Muteba is now in a three way tie for seventh best in club history with Alamou Souhalia and Moussa Sissoko.
As always, New York presented the opportunity to compete in the seldom run in Canada, 500m event with no less than three Lions joining the best in club history. Coming off a lifetime best performance the week before over 600m, Stephen Evans placed 7th in the event with a time of 1:04.64 to move into 4th all-time. On the women’s side, Sophia Skorenky improved her position, jumping from seventh to sixth with her 1:15.28 clocking and Mary Ollier sneaking into tenth position with a time of 1:17.55.
Further south, at the Razorback Invite in Fayetville, Arkansas Erinn Stenman-Fahey posted a new lifetime best performance over 800m, running 2:06.33 to finish seventh. The performance now ranks the Iowa State junior 14th among NCAA Division 1 runners and comes just a week after she ran a personal best 4:49.63 to move into 6th on the club’s all-time list in the mile.
Also moving up the all-time list was Thomas Nedow as he hurled the 35 pound weight out to 14.83m for the third best performance in club history. The University of Guelph freshman has done well in his rookie season with the senior implements as he has also fifth among the shot putters.
The top of the shot put list still belongs to Thomas’ older brother Tim who was victorious Saturday at the Findlay Elite Throws competition in Ohio. Tim’s best heave of 20.37m was nearly two and a half meters better than his nearest competitor and would appear to show he is rounding in to shape for another run at the Commonwealth Games podium in April.
To see the all-time list check out our awards and records page.

From the Windsor Star
Melissa Bishop has literally lived life on the run for more than a decade, but the Canadian record-holder in the 800-metres will be spending this summer changing diapers instead of lanes on the track.
Bishop and her husband Osi Nriagu took to Twitter Friday to announce they were expecting their first child in June. The couple, who met when both were members of the University of Windsor track team, were married last October.
“It was definitely a welcome surprise,” said the 29-year-old Bishop. “We found out just after Christmas.
“There were a lot of tears of joy. There was a lot of shock.
“It was such a precious moment.”
Continue reading here.

Oluseyi Smith told the Ottawa Sports Page last fall his goal on the track was Olympic or World Championships medals. The former Lion sprinter briefly realized that goal six years ago during the London 2012 4 x 100m relay before it was so infamously stripped away due to a lane violation.
[getty src=”167316766″ width=”594″ height=”416″ tld=”com”] Today, the 30 year old Smith was given another shot at Olympic glory as he was named to Team Canada for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, South Korea where he is expected to compete in the four man bobsleigh event.
After failing to make the Rio Olympics, Smith stepped away from the track, focusing on his career as an electrical engineer with AltaLink in Calgary, his training base for the final three years of his track career. When his coach there suggested giving bobsleigh a go, he was all in.
While Smith’s track speed is desired in the world of bobsleigh, he was quick to admit, “pushing a sled is very, very different from running,” when he spoke with OSP back in November. Nonetheless, the Brookfield High School graduate has contributed immensely to driver Justin Kripps team this season, helping push them to two World Cup podium finishes.
[getty src=”875571516″ width=”594″ height=”396″ tld=”ca”] Smith will become the sixth Lion to represent Canada at the Winter Olympics in the sport of bobsleigh, the most recent being former hurdler Cody Sorenson who competed four years ago in Sochi. Smith also become the second dual sport Olympian, following in Glenroy Gilbert’s footsteps – his former coach.
The first two runs of the four man competition are scheduled to take place February 24th at 9:30am local time (7:30pm February 23rd in Ottawa).

When Sebastian Saville crossed the line to win the 600m at Saturday’s uOttawa Winter National Invitational, he knew his time of 1:17.45 was something special. The fourth year psychology student from Carleton University knew right away he had set a new Louis Riel Dome record – he had finished three quarters of second behind the University of Toronto’s Sacha Smart when he set the then standard of 1:18.01 two years prior.
However, for Saville the records didn’t end there as his stellar performance bested one of the club’s oldest records – Richard Brant’s 600m time of 1:18.02 set almost 30 years ago to the date. Seb, who was also a national finalist over 800m last summer, attributes his recent success to consistent training and health balance in life. “I’ve found a good spot with my network. Ray Elrick has been instrumental with his coaching, my parents are extremely supportive and my work and school have been flexible with their asks as well.”
In addition to the record performance over 600m, Saville also took down the Dome record for 800m on Friday night with a time of 1:51.59 – nearly a full second ahead of the previous standard. Oddly enough, the record performance would go unnoticed by the speedy Saville until a half hour after Saturday’s performance. “I had honestly thought the 800m record was a bit faster,” he joked.
Also at Saturday’s meet, University of Ottawa freshman Keira Christie-Galloway equaled her lifetime best with an 8.53 second clocking in the 60m hurdles prelims before winning the final comfortably in 8.62 seconds. Her performance from the prelims currently puts her second in the Canadian University rankings.
South of the border, hurdler Ashlea Maddex lowered her seasonal best to 8.40 seconds en route to winning a competition in Nampa, Idaho. A freshman at Cal State Los Angeles, Maddex is currently in a tie for the number one performance in the NCAA Division 2 rankings.
Next on the calendar for the Lions is next weekend’s McGill Team Challenge in Montreal and the Dr. Sander Invitational and Columbia Challenge in New York City.
 

The podium finishes came fast and furious as the Lions opened the new year at competitions across Ontario, Quebec and New York. In total, 25 podium finishes were produced – including nine gold medal performances.
The Can-Am Classic at the University of Windsor produced four medal performances from throwers Thomas Nedow and Leanna Garcia. Nedow was victorious Friday night in the men’s shot put competition with a number five all-time performance of 15.68m and followed it up Saturday with another personal best in the weight throw, 14.35m, to finish third. Garcia produced a gold medal performance in the weight throw with a 14.36m heave while also finishing second in the shot put.
Up the 401 in Toronto, Nedow’s older brother Tim opened his shot put season with a solid 19.84m heave to win at the Athletics Ontario Championship Series #1. Tim was recently named to the Commonwealth Games team where he will be looking to improve upon his bronze medal finish from four years ago.
The throws success continued in Quebec City at the Rouge et Or Invitational where Ty Coulter raised the University of Ottawa’s women’s weight throw record for the third consecutive meet with a heave of 15.58m to finish second.  The mark currently ranks 7th in the USports ranking. Carleton Raven Dani Ferguson-Jamer finished in the bronze position with a best of 13.52m. Christina Hertner rounded out the throwing medals, claiming victory in the shot put with a 11.94m toss.
At the Great Dane Classic on Staten Island, Stephen Evans and Devyani Biswal each claimed victory. For Evans, it took a lifetime best of 2:27.06 to claim victoy in the 1000m while Biswal produced her fastest opener ever over 60m, 7.86 seconds, on her way to gold. Devyani would put out a similar effort as she finished 5th in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.53 seconds. Teammate Ashlea Maddex claimed silver in that race posting a speedy 8.44 second time.
The final medal from New York also came in the 1000m as Madison Clarke ran her way to a silver. Like Evans, Clarke’s time of 2:51.92 was a significant personal best as she erased nearly three seconds from her previous standard.
Other podium finishes from the weekend are as follows:
GOLD 600m – Marie-Eve Dahms 1:38.53
GOLD 4x200m – Carleton University Men 1:36.22
GOLD Pole Vault – Caroline Poirer 3.40m
SILVER 60mH – Nafthalia Lucien 9.55
SILVER 60mH – Tyler Dacosta 9.03
BRONZE 4x200m – Ottawa Lions Women 1:54.38
BRONZE 4x800m – University of Ottawa Women 10:04.40
BRONZE 4x200m – Ottawa Lions Men 1:37.45
BRONZE 4x800m – University of Ottawa Men 8:39.88
BRONZE 4x200m – University of Ottawa Men 1:37.45
BRONZE Triple Jump – Rinila Haridas 10.41m
BRONZE 60m – Emmanuel Nwokobia 7.10
Lions return to action this Saturday as they host the uOttawa Winter National Capital Invitational. Information can be found on our meet info page.
 

When Athletics Canada announced their 46 athlete Commonwealth Games team destined for Australia’s Gold Coast this week there were two familiar faces on the list. Throwers Tim Nedow and Sultana Frizell are heading back to the quadrennial event for the second and third time respectively.
Frizell is a seasoned Commonwealth Games competitor being the two time defending champion in specialty, the hammer throw. As well, the Perth native holds both the Games and Commonwealth record in the event. Looking to disrupt Frizell run at a three-peat will be England’s Sophie Hitchon, bronze medalist at the Rio Olympics.
For Nedow, he will be looking to improve upon his bronze medal performance from Glasgow where he finished behind Jamaica’s O’Dayne Richards and New Zealand’s Tom Walsh. With Richards finishing 2017 ranked 6th in the world and Walsh winning the World Championship, Nedow will be in for a battle.
World and Olympic finalist Melissa Bishop and 2010 Commonwealth Games medalist Joshua Cassidy had both qualified for the team, but turned down their invitation to compete.
Competition is set to begin down under on April 7th where Nedow will compete in shot put qualification. Frizell will follow on the 8th for her qualification round. Finals are then scheduled for 8th (Nedow) and 9th (Frizell).
 
 
 
 

Yesterday we broke down some of our highlights from 2017 and today we’re taking a look at some of the best performances from the best 12 months. We’ve converted the performances using the IAAF Points table using the following calculator.
There will be one noticeable absence from the list and that is Sultana Frizell’s Canadian record weight throw of 23.61m. Since the weight throw is not an IAAF event, it unfortunately does not have a corresponding point calculation. But for your own knowledge, the performance ranks Frizell 12th all-time in the world.
Now to the rankings. Athletes can only be on the list once per event, but performances across multiple events were counted.
Men:

1. Tim Nedow, Shot Put. 20.73m – 1164 points
2. Adam Palamar, Mile, 3:57.39(i) – 1164
3. Sekou Kaba, 110m Hurdles, 13.65 – 1130
4. Oluwasegun Makinde, 100m, 10.39 – 1076
5. Adam Palamar, 1500m, 3:42.70 – 1071
6. Sebastian Saville, 600m, 1:18.79(i) – 1063
7. Tim Nedow, Discus, 60.03m – 1061
8. Sebastian Saville, 800m, 1:48.88 – 1058
9. Owen Day, 1500m, 3:44.38 – 1048
10. Oluwasegun Makinde, 200m, 21.23 – 1034
11. Saj Alhaddad, 400m Hurdles, 52.14 – 1026
12. Segun Makinde, 60m, 6.86 – 1011
13. Adam Palamar, 800m, 1:52.53 – 1008
14. Telvin Tavernier, Heptathlon, 5267 – 983
15. Stephen Evans, 800m, 1:51.74 – 977
16. Scott Hancock, 60m Hurdles, 8.26 – 960
17. Sekou Kaba, 60m Hurdles, 8.28 – 954
18. Scott Hancock, Long Jump, 7.15 – 954
19. Stephen Evans, 600m, 1:20.04 – 953
20. Alejandro Perlaza, 300m, 34.47 – 945
21. Telvin Tavernier, Pole Vault, 4.82 – 945
22. Bertwin Ben-Smith, 300m, 35.18 – 938
23. Austin White, 400m Hurdles, 54.07 – 937
24. Remy Binns, 800m, 1:53.44 – 930
25. Scott Hancock, 110m Hurdles, 14.79 – 928

Women:

1. Melissa Bishop, 800m, 1:57.01 – 1207 points
2. Ashlea Maddex, 100m Hurdles, 13.16 – 1128
3. Melissa Bishop, 1500m, 4:10.30 – 1124
4. Devyani Biswal, 100m Hurdles, 13.51 – 1082
5. Farah Jacques, 200m, 23.69 – 1066
6. Sultana Frizell, Hammer Throw, 68.01 – 1061
7. Sharelle Samuel, 400m, 53.75 – 1059
8. Keira Christie-Galloway, 100m Hurdles, 13.73 – 1053
9. Charifa Labarang, 200m, 23.86 – 1049
10. Amelia Brohman, 60m, 7.54 – 1039
11. Erinn Stenman-Fahey, 800m, 2:06.74 – 1037
12. Charlotte Gardner, 600m, 1:31.69 – 1034
13. Sharelle Samuel, 400m Hurdles, 59.59 – 1033
14. Tania Bambi, 100m Hurdles, 13.91 – 1030
15. Divya Biswal, Triple Jump, 13.27 – 1028
16. Farah Jacques, 100m, 11.85 – 1021
17. Charifa Labarang, 100m, 11.86 – 1019
18. Lauren Gale, Erinn Stenman-Fahey, Madison Clarke, Sharelle Samuel, 4x400m, 3:44.58 – 1019
19. Charifa Labarang, 60m, 7.61 – 1016
20. Farah Jacques, 300m, 38.97(i) – 1012
21. Barbara Bitchoka, High Jump, 1.8 – 1009
22. Charlotte Gardner, 800m, 2:08.39 – 1009
23. Lauren Gale, Maeliss Trapeau, Helena Jovic, Sharelle Samuel, 4x400m, 3:46.59 – 1003
24. Charifa Labarang, Ashlea Maddex, Devyani Biswal, Keira Christie-Galloway, 4x100m, 47.57 – 999
25. Divya Biswal, Long Jump, 6.05m – 998