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The Ottawa Lions were well represented among the winner’s category at the 9th Annual Athletics Ontario and Ontario Masters Athletics Awards Gala which took place last Saturday in Richmond Hill. In total, Lions athletes took home six awards with Wendy Alexis being honoured as the top female athlete in the masters sprints/hurdles category as well as winning the Ontario Masters Athletics Female Athlete of the Year.
Wendy was acknowledged for her tremendous season on the track which saw her win double sprint gold in the women’s 60 category at the Canadian Championships where she bested her long time rival, Karal Del Grande. Alexis was also the Ontario champion over 200m, but was edged out for gold in the 100m by Del Grande at the provincial championships.
There were no surprises in the senior women’s distance category as Melissa Bishop took home the award for the second year in a row after her fourth place finish at the Olympic Games and a new Canadian Record of 1:57.02 for 800m.
Also in the distance category, Shona McCulloch was recognized for her spectacular season which included two Canadian records. McCulloch first broke the Canadian junior indoor 5000m record last winter with a run of 16 minutes 31.22 seconds in New York City. Then this spring she broke former training partner Claire Smith’s national junior 3000m record. Shona would lower it again at the World Junior Championships with a run of 9:16..93 to finish 11th.
Tim Nedow was named Ontario’s top senior male thrower for the fifth year in a row following a season that saw him break the 21m barrier for the first time ever. Nedow was also the inaugural winner the shot put of the IAAF Indoor World Tour. The Brockville native was also 7th at the World Indoor Championships and 16th at the Olympic Games.
Leslie Estwick was honoured as the top female athlete in the masters jumps category in her first season of masters competition after more than a decade off. Estwick was a provincial and national champion in the women’s 55 and over high jump. After equaling the previous Canadian record at provincials, Leslie added two more centimetres to it at nationals.

FROM CANADIAN RUNNING MAGAZINE
Thomas Des Brisay led a pack of more than 8,500 runners to the finish in the half-marathon at the Canada Army Run on Sunday in Ottawa. The 24-year-old runner with autism, also one of Canada’s top para-athletes, ran 1:12:24 to win by almost two minutes over James Murphy. His time was a personal best.
Des Brisay, who runs for the local Ottawa Lions Track & Field Club, is a regular on the Ontario running circuit and completed his first marathon in 2014. The 24-year-old was diagnosed with autism at an early age and has been getting faster by the day since his start in the sport in 2006.
On Sunday, Des Brisay, who wants to be “the first fastest runner in the world,” showed off his speed running his 5K splits as follows: 17:02, 16:19, 17:25, 17:42 and finishing off with a 3:59 final 1.1K.
Continue reading.
Lions athletes athletes also swept the 5km races with Alex Behre (15:26.8) and Katie Phillips (17:33.9) both victorious.

Ottawa’s Josh Cassidy made his move with three laps to go in the T54 5,000 metre final Sunday. Unfortunately, after sprinting into the lead Cassidy began to fall behind the pace, dropping back to 10th as he crossed the finish line.
Going for it was a tactic that he had planned from the start.
“I made the right choice there, by going to the front,” the 31-year-old said, after posting a 11:09.42. “I was further back and if the sprint happened I wanted to be up there and not pulling.
“As it went crazy, I just got pinched and went back, back, back to where I was before. My sprint even on a medium (soft) track like this isn’t the greatest so I tried to set myself up for the best position and that was it.”
Cassidy is striving for his first Paralympic medal in Rio and will have two more chances for it, racing in the 1,500m T54 heat on Monday and the 800m on Wednesday. The Lion athlete plans to stick to the same preparation.
“I think my prep was great today,” he said. “I had quite a bit of nerves in the semi which is unusual for me. As soon as it was done, completely relaxed, and I felt absolutely great with everything I’ve done so far.”
Also on Sunday, Jason Dunkerley and Josh Karanja finished second in the third heat of the T11 visually impaired 1500-metres to advance to Tuesday’s final. They crossed the line in 4:14.99, “It was a difficult race but we had our plan that we had discussed with our coach to get up hard and to get in a good position. That is what we did today. The competition is so much stronger than when I started 18 years ago, we’re just happy to still be in the mix and that we’re going forward to the final.”
 

As the Paralympic Games enter the second day of competition on Friday, wheelchair racer Josh Cassidy begins his push for gold. Rio will mark the third Paralympic Games for Cassidy, who’s best finish was a fifth place showing four years ago in London over 800m .
Josh will be racing the 5000m Friday night in the first of two heats, starting at 5:04 pm eastern. He will need to finish in the top three of his heat or be among the four fastest non-qualifiers to advance to Sunday’s final.
Cassidy enters the competition with the 10th fastest time in the world in 2016 – a 10 minute 7.77 second clocking from March.
The 5000m race can be viewed live on CBC.ca

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To:                   Ottawa Lions Members – Athletes, Coaches and Parents
Date:               Saturday, September 3, 2016
Re:                   Update – Club Information – Part 2
 Restructuring of Staffing and Programs for ages 11 to the +40 years programs
From:               Andy McInnis – Head Coach
NEW START-UP PROGRAMS AND INFORMATION
All these materials will be posted for information, action and enrollment in programs as of Monday, September 5. 

• Sept. 7 – Our Varsity X-Country Programs start
• Sept. 10 – Our Youth 6-12 Programs start (2 Themes –  X-Country / Speed-Power)
• Sept. 12 – Our Foundation 11-13 start (Endurance-Athleticism / Speed-Power-Athleticism)
• Sept. 12 – Our Aspire Programs 13-16 (Endurance Development / Speed-Power Development)
• Sept. 19 – Our Varsity Track & Field Programs start
• Sept. 19 – 17 + Competitive Track & Field Programs start
• Masters Athletes – contact us directly for your start-ups – info@ottawalions.com
• If you do not see where you fit – contact us and we will find you a home – info@ottawalions.com

NEW STRUCTURE AND STAFFING STRATEGIES
The Club “The Now”
We are cresting as a successful sports organization and as the most successful and largest of all track & field clubs in Canada.   The Club is unrivaled and amazingly is independent of funding from government and academic institutions for its operations.  Many other clubs have hoped to duplicate what we do and we are in the process of defining the operational foundations that have allowed us to be so successful.
 Volunteerism is at the very root of our successes and we would not be where we are without it.  The “volunteer” is our Club’s life blood and some of our volunteers are nearing 30 to 40+ years of supporting this organization.  It is the incredible nature of the symbiotic relationship of coaches and supporting staff in Ottawa.  Everyone plays a critical role in the development and support of our athletes.  It is not uncommon for athletes to experience coaching from 3 to 5 coaches or more over their sport career in the Ottawa Lions.   We have repeatedly delivered this and we will continue to deliver a path from “the playground to the Olympic Games”.   
Reflective leadership, supportive staff and an accountable, respectful Board of Directors has shepherded the Lion’s administration for well over four decades.  We continue to grow beyond programs, taking on larger roles and new directions in the development of our sport in the City of Ottawa and in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.  No one else does what we do.   We are now very much a part of government politics, networking, education programs at all levels, facility development and equipment sustainability. 
Our capacities are being challenged and we recognize that we must evolve and adapt to meet the challenges of a new and ever-changing environment.  In doing this, the Club has identified a critical pathway and will be taking strategic action over the next five years in a modernized role for continued success and for a long future as a truly great sport organization. 
The Why?
Two months ago we were tasked by the Ottawa Lions Board of Directors to prepare the Club’s structure for a rapid and deliverable success for the immediate future.  It entailed reviewing and reorganizing, as necessary, the professional structure of the Club including the employees.  A significant number of the club’s leadership will be retiring and/or stepping back from duties over the next 5 years.    
The How?  
STAGE 1.         Effective Immediately
The restructuring and re-design of staffing covering the aspects office administration, competition hosting & event management and programs for 11 to 16 and then 17 years of age and upward.  
STAGE 2.         Effective Immediately to September 1, 2017
To review and modify as necessary the Club’s Youth Programs for ages 6 to 12 years.  Our current leadership has announced his retirement from his long and successful tenure as the Youth Programs Manager (Joe Burke) as of August, 2017.   We will proactively seek out, train and prepare the Club’s next generation of leadership for this program.
STAGE 3.         Effective Immediately to August, 2021
To prepare and implement a strategic plan for a succession of the Club’s overall leadership.  This is in response to the planned gradual delegation of duties of current Head Coach / Director – Andy McInnis over the next 3 to 5 years.
ACTION TAKEN – Stage 1
In a definitive effort to take Canadian club level track & field to the next level, the Ottawa Lions has moved forward with the initiative to increase the numbers of staff in a leadership and administrative roles.  The intention is to impact entry level athletes ages 11 to 16 programs with “athletic capacity” while challenging those athletes 16 and 17 years to move to individually identified technical program areas that are more organized, more individually challenging and competitive.  Training and program opportunities will then be integrated with our provincial, national and international level event area specific coaches. 
New position  “Program Leaders” (3 now and increasing to more in the future) will manage program delivery, challenging the capacity ages 11 to 16 years, while working with and supporting our next generation of volunteer coaches.   They will also have co-shared administrative responsibilities and will work to design out-reach support to the school systems to help locate our future stars.  The Program Leaders will also look vertically to assume more involvement strategically in the placement of the 16 to 17 year athletes to higher program challenges as well as Varsity Programs, Road Race and Masters program development.
Our Office Administrative Staff and Finance Staff will move to 3 positions to actively engage our membership and improve communications and social media content.   We will be launching online membership enrollment, payment and member management of our data base information.
The Competition Events Management Division of our Club will move to expand and integrate the services we provide to other organizations for timing and results with the technical planning, information, entries and logistics of all home competition hosting.   They will play a critical planning role in our hosting and delivery of the 2017 and 2018 National Championships in Ottawa. 
As always, we are available for any questions.  Please contact us at info@ottawawlions.com.

Notice to Membership
Date: August 28, 2016
From: Andy McInnis – Head Coach / Director
Re: Club Restructuring & Upcoming Programs (Fall 2016 onward)
We hope all of you have enjoyed the coverage and successes of our team and local heroes in the Rio Olympic Games. We do appreciate your patience as the Club moves towards a new office and program restructuring in the way we do business with all our members. This evolution has slowed down our posting of programs for ages of 12 years and older up to our Masters (40yrs+) members. The programs for 6 to 12 years of age however are fully up and functional. We have been awaiting new information impacting this Fall of 2016 start. The final outcome will however be innovative, flexible and promises the membership an exciting and challenging future in our programs. There will be a more detailed and an informative release coming out this week of August 29 to all and posted to our web site.
For the time being we can tell you the following critical points:
– The Terry Fox Athletics Facility will be “CLOSED” from Monday, August 29 to Friday, September 9th as work on a small project is completed to re-paint all the lane lines, start lines and hurdle markings as well as install new rubber in numerous areas for the field event jumps areas and 100m start area. All this work will be part of many projects to come as we upgrade our home at Terry Fox to host the 2017 and 2018 National Championships in early July. You will see a new equipment building near completion for our new equipment near the 100m start line, a new main gate entrance and new fencing. During September you will be able to see the construction and completion of the new upgrades to the Timing Tower at the Finish Line. There is a lot more to come! (Lights brought up to sport code, video scoreboard, and lot’s of infrastructure renewal)
– Programs will be starting on or about September 10th and forward depending on your age and program. Some programs will start as late as Monday, September 19th. The entire Club will be in full swing by this date. Specific Program starts will be posted by the end of this week on our web site.
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Canada’s Melissa Bishop just missed out on an Olympic medal after finishing fourth in the women’s 800 metres on Saturday at the Rio Olympics.
The 28-year-old of Eganville, Ont., set a Canadian record with a time of one minute 57.02 seconds, but was passed just before the finish line by Kenya’s Margaret Wambui and denied a spot on the podium.
Caster Semenya of South Africa won gold in 1:55.28, followed by Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi in 1:56.49 and Wambui in 1:56.89.
To read full article, click here.

RIO DE JANEIRO— It was a historic day for Lions athletes as both Melissa Bishop and Farah Jacques will compete for Olympic medals after both advancing to finals on Thursday.
Bishop was second in her 800m semi-final, crossing the line in one minute 59.05 seconds, just beating Poland’s Joanna Jozwik in 1:58.93. It marks the first time a Lion has qualified for an individual event final at an Olympic Games.
 
Bishop kicked her way home over the final half lap, distancing her self from the bunched up pack. “When there’s eight of us trying to run in one lane, it gets pretty tight,” Bishop said of a couple of bumping incidents. “I think it’s just making yourself aware. You know how long your stride is. You just have to gauge it off what everyone else’s is. It’s tough.
“I’m really excited. This is my first Olympic final, but certainly not my first final. So I think if I can rest up and recover well and come here on the day with everything at 100 per cent, I’ll be okay.” Bishop races Saturday night 8:15pm Eastern.
Farah Jacques ran lead off for Canada’s 4x100m relay team Thursday morning, helping the quartet to a seasonal best 42.70 second clocking, just thousandths ahead of China for the 8th and final qualifying spot. It was the first time running lead-off for Jacques, who admitted to feeling a bit nervous. However, she told Athletics Canada she is very excited and ready for tonight’s final. The women run at 9:15pm Eastern.
The final Lion competing on day seven of the track and field program was shot putter Tim Nedow. The 26 year old from Brockville managed to heave the ball out to a best of 20.00m to finish 16th overall. Nedow was battling to feel relaxed in the circle.
“Warm up didn’t feel that great, my first throw I just tightened up like crazy, that’s one of the disadvantages of being tall, if I tighten up it’s pretty much over,” said the Canadian champion.
“Second throw I was more relaxed, threw 20-metres which isn’t that bad, but it’s not great either. I wished that would have been my first throw, third throw again I tightened up at the last second, if not I feel like that would have been over 20.50-metres. At this level you can’t do that. Unfortunately, 20-metres wasn’t enough to make it through.”

RIO DE JANEIRO — Canada’s Melissa Bishop made it through to the semifinals of the women’s 800 metres with what was the fastest qualifying time of a strong field — and on a very fast track.
Bishop, 27, from Eganville, Ont., was in the middle of the pack after a lap but moved into an inside position, stride-for-stride with Marina Arzamasova of Belarus, who edged Bishop for the gold medal at the world championships in Beijing last summer. The pair outraced the rest of their heat in the closing lap, with Bishop finishing just in front in a time of 1:58:38.
“I think we’ll be good,” said Bishop of the preparation between today and the semifinal races on Thursday morning. The final goes Saturday night. “We have a really good team with Athletics Canada so, yeah, I think we’ll be good.”
Sixteen of the 24 qualifiers for the 800-metre semis ran below two minutes on a hot, sunny morning at Olympic Stadium.
To continue reading article, click here.
 

Sekou Kaba’s first Olympic experience didn’t quite go as planned Monday night at the
Engenhão Stadium in Rio. Kaba, a semi-finalist at last year’s World Championships, narrowly missed out on achieving the same feat, posting a time of 13.70 seconds to finish eighth in the fifth and final heat.
The hurdle event was not without its own built in dramatics as rain poured down into the stadium as the session commenced, leaving puddles across the track. The result was after the first two heats, the entire meet was suspended until conditions improved.
The delay lasted about 20 mins. Once back on the track, Kaba looked smooth in his race, running over the 42 inch barriers cleanly – an uncommon sight in men’s sprint hurdles. The result was Kaba’s second fastest time of the season.
Following the competition, the University of Ottawa grade took to Twitter to thank all his supporters. “”Tried 2 put on a front but failed to hold back tears. I’ve never felt support like this. Thank u guys sooo much. Will do better next time!”
Next up for the Lions in Rio will be Melissa Bishop who will run the 800m heats Wednesday morning.