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TICKETS ON SALE NOW STARTING AS LOW AS $15 PER DAY

Ottawa – Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic stars, including Andre De Grasse, Melissa Bishop, Damian Warner, Derek Drouin, Alister McQueen and Brent Lakatos, will descend on Ottawa July 3-9 for the 2017 Canadian Track and Field Championships. The championships take place at Terry Fox Athletic Facility as part of Canada’s 150th celebrations.
“It has been awhile since Ottawa has hosted the national championships,” said Canadian 800-metres record holder Melissa Bishop. “I was actually a junior helping the Ottawa Lions with the meet the last time it was in Ottawa. To have it in the nation’s capital for Canada’s 150th is special.”
“It will be exciting that so many of my supporters will be able to see my race in person, and be able to witness so much more of the talent from our Canadian athletes,” added Bishop. “In addition to my family and friends, I suspect I’ll have a lot of fans from Eganville and the Ottawa Valley [in the stands] as well.”
With a number of local track and field stars, including several Rio Olympians and Paralympians, competition will be fierce for the honour of earning the title of Canadian champion, in addition to a place on the national team for the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London, England.
“Fans should know that the World Championships are in August following [Nationals],” said Sekou Kaba who competes in the 110-metre hurdles. “With only three spots available (per event) for team selection, who wouldn’t want to witness Olympians and rising stars compete for the privilege to represent Canada in London. The event is sure to be action-packed with world-class performances, Cinderella moments, and of course, fun and entertainment to keep the crowd on their toes.”
“To win a Canadian title in front of a hometown crowd will be a massive accomplishment for me,” said Larissa Brown, a local para-athlete who’s looking to secure her sport on the national team competing at the IPC World Championships in the 100-metres, 200-metres and long jump. “Last year, I was nipped out of a gold medal in the 100-metres at the finish line, and I plan to remedy this situation [in Ottawa].”
The championships begin with free admission for all guests July 3-5 for the NACAC Combined Events Championships / Pan Am Cup, Canadian Combined Events Championships and the Boiling Point USA vs. Canada Para Challenge.
Tickets are on sale now at www.ottawa2017.eventbrite.ca and start as low as $15 per day July 6-9 (children 12 years of age and under are free for the duration of the Championships). Spectators can also purchase a Championships Pass for only $50 that will give them access to all events taking place July 6-9 at Terry Fox Athletic Facility.
“We have such a strong team right now, and it’s not every day you get to see Olympic/Paralympic champions and medallists compete right in front of you,” said Olympic shot putter Tim Nedow. “When people see how high Derek Drouin is jumping, or just how fast Andre De Grasse runs the 100-meters… it’s amazing. You have to witness it in person to really understand how impressive these guys and other athletes are.”
“For me, the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto were the first time my friends and family were able to watch me compete at a world-class level,” added Nedow. “It was an awesome experience and my family will definitely be there in the stands. I hope my brother (18-year-old Thomas) will hit the standard and join me in the competition.”
Fans looking for an exciting and rewarding way to be involved in Canada’s premier track and field event are encouraged to sign-up to become a volunteer. With positions in event registration, guest services, event support and more, there is a spot for everyone who wants to be part of the event.
For more information on the 2017 Canadian Track and Field Championships, including schedule of events, volunteer application form, ticket information and accommodations, visit www.athletics.ca/ottawa2017.
Members of the media looking to cover the championships are asked to fill-out the media accreditation request form located on the championships webpage.
 

Sprinters Wendy Alexis and Serge Faucher combined for three medals at the recently completed World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships in Daegu, Korea.
Alexis proved yet again she is among the fastest women in the world in the over 60 age category, speeding to silver medals in both the 60m and 200m races. While the 61 year old teacher was able to put forth a seasonal best effort of 8.85 seconds in the 60m preliminaries, she was narrowly edged out by compatriot Karla Del Grande in the final.
Over 200m it was again a battle between Del Grande and Alexis, with the results looking exactly the same as Wendy crossed in 29.26 seconds, two tenths behind her rival. However, Alexis’ time was a seasonal best by nearly half a second.
For Serge Faucher it was representing Canada on the M50 4x200m relay where he shone, running third leg on the silver medal winning team. The Canadian quartet finished just over a second behind the victorious Americans.
In his individual events, Faucher ran a seasonal best of 54.90 to finish 6th in the 400m while also finishing 10th and 11th in the 200m and 60m respectively.
Also competing on the global scene, Shona McCulloch finished 86th in the junior women’s race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Kampala, Uganda.  The Canadian team finished in 6th place, it’s third best finish in the history of the competition.

The indoor season officially came to a close Saturday as the USports Championships finished up at the Butterdome in Edmonton. But before they shut the lights out, Lions athletes manage pick up some hardware for the trip home.
It was a combination of veterans and rookies that won six medals, led by double gold medalist Ashley Connell. The senior at the University of Guelph swept both the throwing events, including a new personal best 18.46m in the weight throw. Her victories in the weight throw and shot put (15.59m) were the first in her collegiate career after previously winning medals each of the past two years in the shot put.
Also picking up two medals was Telvin Tavernier who put together the two best performances of his life to win a silver in the heptathlon and bronze in the pole vault. A relatively recent convert to the combined events from his first love, the pole vault, Tavernier was able to equal his PB in his speciality event to vault himself to the silver medal in the heptathlon, improving on his own Carleton University record by more than 150 points.
Less that 24 hours later the engineering student was back at it, clearing 4.82m in the pole vault, adding a further 12 cm to his lifetime best.The result was an impressive third place finish for Tavernier after entering the competition ranked 13th.
On the sprint straightaway, Shyvonne Roxborough showed she will be a force to reckon with over the next four years, picking up a silver medal in the 60m final as a freshman with a time of 7.51 seconds.
The Lions final medal  also came on the straightaway as Tania Bambi sped her way to bronze with a time of 8.44 seconds. Nipping at her heals was Devyani Biswal who finished just one one hundredth back in 8.45 seconds.
South of the border at the NCAA Championships, Adam Palamar picked up his first All-American Award with his 5th place finish in the mile. The Syracuse University senior finished the tactical final in a time 4:06.27.
Other top eight finishes from the USports Championship include
Seb Saville
4th – 600m (1:18.79)
Scott Hancock
5th – 60m Hurdles PB 8.26 (0.01 off bronze)
5th – Long Jump PB 7.15m
Amelia Brohman
5th – 60m (7.55)
Charlotte Gardner
6th – 600m (1:32.21)
 
 

It’s championship weekend both north and south of the border this weekend with the USports National Championships taking place in Edmonton and the NCAA Championships being held in College Station, Texas.
In Edmonton, the Lions will be represented by 17 athletes competing in 13 different events over the course of the three day meet. Entries include three past medalists,  Devyani Biswal and Charlotte Gardner, both competing for the University of Ottawa and Ashley Connell of the University of Guelph.
Biswal, a graduate student in mathematics, is the defending champion in the 60m hurdles and is coming off a school record performance two weeks ago at the OUA Championships. She enters the competition ranked 4th and is ready to go even faster.
For Gardner, she will look to rekindle the same magic she displayed three years ago in winning bronze on the same Butterdome track. If the past few weeks of competition are any indication, Gardner looks poised run beyond her sixth place seed and right back on to the podium.
Connell is in her final year at Guelph appears ready to grab that elusive USports gold medal. The only question now is whether it will come in the shot put or weight throw. While Connell has excelled in the shot put from her freshman year, it has been her expertise in hurling a 20lb ball that has raised her to the top of the national rankings. She enters the shot put ranked second in the country.
Looking to make the podium for the first time, Carleton senior Talvin Tavernier will make his debut at the national championships. The engineering student enters the seven discipline heptathlon ranked third, five points behind second. Tavernier will also compete in the pole vault where he has the 10th best mark heading in after clearing a school record 4.70m last weekend.
In Texas, Adam Palamar will be the lone Lion vying for a national championship. The Syracuse University senior enters the mile competition ranked 6th.
Below is a complete list of Lion entries for this weekend’s USports Championships. You can watch live here.
Women’s 60m (Thursday 8pm Eastern HEATS, 9pm Eastern FINAL)
Shyvonne Roxborough – Guelph 3rd
Amelia Brohman – Carleton 6th
Charifa Labarang – Ottawa 11th
Women’s 600m (Thursday 9:30pm Eastern HEATS, Saturday 3:15pm Eastern FINAL)
Charlotte Gardner – Ottawa 6th
Madison Clarke – Ottawa 7th
Men’s 600m  (Thursday 9:45pm Eastern HEATS, Saturday 3:30pm Eastern FINAL)
Sebastian Saville – Carleton 5th
Stephen Evans – Ottawa 11th
Women’s 60m Hurdles (Friday 6:30pm Eastern HEATS, 7:30pm Eastern FINAL)
Devyani Biswal – Ottawa 4th
Tania Bambi – Ottawa 5th
Alexia Lamothe – Windsor 10th
Men’s 60m Hurdles (Friday 6:45pm Eastern HEATS, 7:40pm Eastern FINAL)
Scott Hancock – Ottawa 6th
Women’s 4x400m (Saturday 6pm Eastern FINAL)
uOttawa (Jecica Joseph, Sophia Skorenky, Madison Clarke, Charlotte Gardner) – 6th
Women’s 4x800m (Friday 10pm Eastern FINAL)
uOttawa  (Rebecca Brennan, Sophia Skorenky, Madison Clarke, Charlotte Gardner)- 5th
Men’s High Jump (Friday 7pm Eastern)
Steve Nkusi – Ottawa 10th
Men’s Pole Vault (Saturday 2:30pm Eastern)
Telvin Tavernier – Carleton 13th
Men’s Long Jump (Friday 9pm Eastern)
Scott Hancock – Ottawa 7th
Women’s Shot Put (Friday 9pm Eastern)
Ashley Connell – Guelph 2nd
Women’s Weight Throw (Thursday 4:30pm Eastern)
Ashley Connell – Guelph 1st
Men’s Heptathlon (Thursday 5:15pm Eastern)
Telvin Tavernier – Carleton 3rd
 

It was championship weekend across the continent with Lions athletes competing for conference titles in both U-Sport and NCAA competition. In total, athletes took up home 15 medals including three gold and an athlete of the meet award.
At the Quebec University Championships in Quebec City, Telvin Tavernier took a break from the seven event heptathlon to contest pole vault, 60m hurdles and long jump – winning a medal in each including gold in the vault. – on his way to claiming athlete of the meet honours.
Tavernier wasn’t the only triple medalist in Quebec as Seb Saville captured 600m gold in a new Carleton Ravens record 1:20.07 on the tight track at Laval. In addition to the individual success, Saville also led the 4 x 800m (silver) and 4 x 400m (bronze) teams to medals.
The final two Raven medals came from the short sprints as both Amelia Broham and Emmanuel Nwokobia each repeated as medalists in the 60m. Brohman fell down a notch to silver in 7.66 seconds after winning in 2015. Nwokobia won bronze for the second year in a row, again in school record time (7.07).
At the OUA Championships at York University, Gee Gee athletes picked up five medals to go with Ashley Connell’s gold and silver in the throws for the University of Guelph.
Connell, in her final year as a Gryphon, had won six OUA medals including silver in the shot put on Friday night, before Saturday morning’s weight throw competition. The Brockville native won the weight throw on her first attempt with a lifetime best equalling 17.75m heave. She quickly extended her lead to 17.96m in round two to confirm victory and move to number three in club history.
Also in the field, Steve Nkusi leapt to silver in the high jump. The clearance of 2.01m was a season best for the former Canadian Junior team member who has battled back from early season injuries. Nkusi now sits in the USport top ten and appears primed to return to the national championships.
It took a lifetime best to finally put fifth year senior Scott Hancock on the medal podium. The graduate student’s leap of 7.13m in the final round Friday narrowly edged out Waterloo’s Joerg Ahne for bronze. The performance moves him in to 10th on the club’s all-time list.
On the track, seniors Devyani Biswal and Charlotte Gardner both rose to the championship occassion. Between the prelims and finals, Biswal twice bettered her own school record set in winning last year’s CIS Championships. In the deepest hurdles race in OUA history, Biswal’s time of 8.35 was good enough for bronze.
For Gardner, a CIS medalist in 2013, her bronze in the 600m (1:31.69) on Saturday was her first individual OUA medal in her five year career. However, it wasn’t her only success of the weekend as she also led the women’s 4 x 800m team of Sophia Skorenky, Rebecca Brennan and Madison Clarke to bronze in the second fastest time in school history.
 

Breaking records is starting to become old hat for Sultana Frizell this indoor season. The two time Olympic hammer throw extended her nearly one month old Canadian record in the weight throw to a staggering 23.32 metres.
Competing at the University of Toronto’s Hall Brown Memorial, Frizell’s series included four throws in excess of her previous record of 22.00m. Friday’s event was the penultimate competition on Sultana indoor schedule. She will have one final opportunity to extend her record in a few weeks time at a competition in Indiana.
Earlier this week, world medalist Melissa Bishop continued her indoor unbeaten streak, winning the AIT International Grand Prix in Athlone, Ireland for the second year in a row. Bishop led from the gun, winning comfortably in 2:01.42. The Eganville native will round out her indoor season Saturday at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham, England.
 
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gERe1dOUkVw?ecver=1&w=560&h=315]  

It was a productive weekend for Lions athletes, competing south of the border in New York State headlined by Divya Biswal bounding out to 12.69m to finish third at the Armory Track Invitational in New York City.
Biswal’s leap is the second furthest in club history behind Chantal Ouoba’s club record of 12.74m set in 2002. This was the second top ten performance of the early season for the St. Lawrence University graduate, as Biswal jumped out to 5.85m last month in a meet at Cornell University to move to number six in the long jump.
Upstate, Lions athletes broke a total of five facility records at the Ithaca College Bomber Invitational. Defending USports champion in the 60m hurdles, Devyani Biswal continued to lower her seasonal best as she twice ran under her own facility record on her way to gold on Saturday. She beat her old record of 8.65 seconds, running 8.61 in the semi and 8.56 in the final. She is currently ranked fifth in USports.
In the women’s 400m, grade 11 student Sharelle Samuel dominated the event, crossing the line in a time of 57.64 seconds. The Ashbury student eclipsed former Lion Marisa Turner’s record of 58.23 set last year, winning by over a second.
While both Seb Saville and Madison Clarke dropped under the old 800m facility records, only Clarke got to hold on to the title. She won handily in the women’s race, finishing in 2:13.67, more than a second ahead of her nearest competitor and almost eight tenths under the previous best.
In the men’s race, Saville wasn’t as fortunate. While his time of 1:52.83 was two and a half seconds under the previous record, the Carleton University student would have to settle for third place.
The final record was broken by the University of Ottawa quartet of Jecica Joseph, Charlotte Gardner, Sophia Skorenky and Madison Clarke as they obliterated the previous standard, winning in 3:52.80. Cornell University had previously set the record of 3:57.38 last winter.
Rounding out the weekend’s performances was Melissa Bishop making her 2017 debut at the Camel City Elite 800m in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she won in 2:02.49. The world championship silver medalist had been gunning for her own meet record, 2:02.10 set last year. Bishop will round out her indoor season next weekend with meets in Ireland and England.
 

Last night, for the third time in four years, Glenroy Gilbert was called before the Ottawa sporting community to be honoured as the Male Coach of the Year. Gilbert was once again acknowledged for his work guiding Lions athletes but also leading Canada’s relay team to international success.
Glenroy served as the national team coach for Canada’s three Olympic relay entries in Rio. After a heartbreaking disqualification kept his men’s 4×100 m team off the podium at the London 2012 Olympics, Glenroy’s crew of Akeem Haynes, Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse experienced the reverse fate in Rio, when USA was disqualified to elevate them into the bronze medal position. One of Gilbert’s star pupils, Oluwasegun Makinde was an alternate on the team.
One the women’s side, the 4x100m team including Lion Farah Jacques produced a 7th place finish in the Olympic final. In the 4x400m, the 13th-seeded Canadians not only reached the final unexpectedly, but came within 0.55 seconds of winning a medal, finishing in fourth place.
In addition to Gilbert’s recognition, Lions athletes took home awards in four other categories. Melissa Bishop was recognized for the third time as the Most Outstanding Track and Field athlete in Ottawa. The World Championship medalist had previously won in 2015 and 2012.
In the parasport category, Jason Dunkerley was once again recognized as Ottawa’s top athlete. Dunkerley and his guide Joshua Karanja were fifth place finishers at the Rio Games in the T11 1500m. This was Jason’s fourth win since 2011.
For the third year in a row, Tommy Des Brisay was named the top road racer in the nation’s capital. Des Brisay was the winner of four local road races in 2016 including the Nine Run Run and Army Run half marathons.
Finally, Shona McCulloch was recognized for her excellence in cross country. The Longfields Davidson senior was a bronze medalist at the OFSAA championships last November and finished seventh at the Canadian Junior Championships. Her national result qualified her to compete at the upcoming Pan Am and World Junior Cross Country Championships.

There has to be something about the Boston University Track and Tennis Centre that just seems to get Adam Palamar’s feet moving. Saturday in the Massachusetts capital, the senior at Syracuse University posted NCAA leading time, when the mile in 3 minutes  57.39 seconds.
The Merivale High School graduate had set his previous best a year ago at the same meet when he finished third in 3:58.55.
In addition to running the fastest collegiate time in North America so far this year, Palamar sub-4 minute performance moves him to number two on the club’s all-time list, just 0.02 seconds behind Olympian Stephen Agar.
Back in Canada, Lions athletes descended on Montreal for the nation’s largest indoor meet of the year – the McGill Team Challenge.
Lions, Gee-Gees and Ravens picked up a total of 10 medals including three gold over the two day competition. Ashley Connell was the only athlete to pick up two medals, winning the shot put with a USports qualifying heave of 14.47m. The senior at Guelph also picked up silver in the weight throw.
Lions athletes swept both 60m hurdle events as Keira Christie-Galloway took the women’s event in 8.61 seconds, while teammate Tania Bambi was third in 8.83. Scott Hancock was victorious on the men’s side in 8.48. Hancock also set a new best of 8.41 in the preliminaries which places 6th in the USports rankings.
Other medalists included:
Shyvonne Roxborough – Silver 60m
Amelia Brohman – Bronze 60m
Svetlana Martynova – Silver 600mCharlotte Gardner – Bronze 600m
Stephen Evans – Silver 600m
 

​The Grand Prix d’Athlétisme de Montréal takes place Saturday, February 18 at Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard. Over the next few weeks we are profiling some of the top athletes competing in the event. The event is being held in conjunction with the Hershey Canadian Indoor Youth and Junior Championships (Youth & Junior athletes can register here). The Hershey Indoor Championships will feature some of the best young talent in Canada, while the Grand Prix is headlined by International and Canadian Olympic athletes. Admission is completely free. For more information visit www.indoors.athletics.ca. 

Sekou Kaba of Ottawa will race in the men’s 60-metre hurdles Saturday, February 18. A talented hurdler, Sekou represented Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and 2015 IAAF World Championships.

AC: Now that you’ve had a few months to reflect, how would you sum up your Olympic experience and 2016 as a whole?

SK: My Olympic experience was quite memorable. It was an honor of a lifetime. It was everything I thought it would be, plus more. Though I didn’t attain my goal of being a finalist, I took away so many great lessons from the shortcoming. Soon after crossing the finish line and realizing my goal had slipped away, I made sure to forge good memories of the Games. I allowed myself ten minutes of emotional relief then I joined my friends in the stands. Right away, they lifted up my spirit by putting things into perspective. I was officially an Olympian; I was living my dream.

2016 was the best year of my life; it confirmed that anything is possible with vision, focus and belief.  
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