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In may have only been the third track event of the day at the OFSAA Track and Field Championships, but that didn’t stop Kiera Christie-Galloway from running the fastest 100m hurdles race in OFSAA history.
The grade 11 student at St.Matthews High School in Orleans eclipsed Perdita Felicien’s 18 year old record with a 13.33 second run in the heats before winning provincial gold in a time of 13.57.
Also picking up OFSAA gold on the second day of competition was Sharelle Samuel of Ashbury College. After setting a personal best in Thursday’s heats, Samuel put together another lifetime best performance in the junior girls 400m final, winning in 55.20 seconds. The grade ten student then followed up that performance with a new personal best in the long jump, 5.43m, to pick up her second gold of the day.
Also picking up medals in the field were Lexi Kundlace, who cleared 1.60m in the midget girls high jump to finish third. Bounding her way to the silver medal was Megan Miaro, who moved to seventh in club history with her 11.73m leap.
Back on the track, grade nine student Ben Robinson of Immaculata sped his way to silver in the midget boys 100m dash. Meanwhile grade 12 student, Shyvonne Roxborough of South Carleton, was third in the senior women’s sprint race, finishing in 12.00 seconds.
Rounding out the medals on day two were Tom Saville of Carine Wilson who picked up bronze in the open boys 2000m steeplechase. Also, Mei Mei Weston of Glebe was a silver medalist in the junior girls 1500m in a lifetime best 4 minutes 29.59 seconds.

After opening her Olympic season with smaller meets in and around her training base of Windsor, Melissa Bishop took a two lap tour of Rome’s Olympic Stadium on Thursday as she continues her Road to Rio.
The reigning world silver medalist finished seventh in a time of 1:59.97 and was appeared content with the performance afterwards.  “It wasn’t too bad, coming off the travel,” said Bishop. “There’s lots of works to be done, but it’s the second day in June. We have some time.”.  Melissa will compete Saturday in the Birmingham Diamond League before returning to Canada to run in the National Track League.
Closer to home, but also in the 800m, Samantha Murphy (2:03.84) and Svetlana Martynova (2:07.61 PB) finished 9th and 24th respectively at the Adrian Martinez Classic in Massachusetts. In the men’s race, Seb Saville was 21st in 1:51.34.
Finally, at the OFSAA Track and Field Championships in Windsor, Sharelle Samuel was in a class of her own in the junior girls 400m qualifying, qualifying for the final in 55.39 seconds, almost a second and a half better than the nearest competitor. In fact, the time was the fastest among the girls across all age categories yesterday.
Other OFSAA final qualifiers yesterday included Michael Mather (SB), Keili Shepherd (SG), and Mei Mei Weston (JG) all in the 1500m. In the steeplechase, Thomas Saville was the third fastest qualifer, whjile Teagan Harris also advanced.
Also, Rinila Haridas was sixth in the junior girls triple jump with a leap of 10.91m.

The track was on fire this weekend with some superb performances by Lions athletes, including a new club record by Melissa Bishop in the 1500m and sprint sweep by Lauren Gale at the Colorado 4A State Championships.
Bishop opened her outdoor season much the same way she did indoors, with a large PB in the 1500m. While the World Championship silver medalist is better known for her two lap effort, she made a case for herself in the metric mile, winning the Windsor Open in 4 minutes 9.58 seconds. Bishop led from the gun, essentially running away from the field in a time trial type effort.
The victory lowered Melissa’s personal best by more than eight seconds and eclipsed Nathalie Cote’s previous club record of 4:12.68 set in 1998. The time also ranks her fifth in Canada.
Also in Windsor, Ashlea Maddex captured top spot in the 100m hurdles in a seasonal best 13.57 seconds. Farah Jacques was second in the 400m with a personal best 53.91.
South of the border, sprinter Lauren Gale was a dominating force at the Colorado State 4A Championships, picking up a quartet of gold medals. Gale, a triple gold medalist at last year’s OFSAA championships, relocated to Colorado Springs last fall and wasted no time making an impression, sweeping all three sprinting events and bringing her school from worst to first on the final leg of the sprint medley en-route to a new championship record.
Running all three sprint championships in less than two and a half hours, Gale battled a 2.1 m/s headwind to win the 100m in 12.32 seconds. She followed that up less than an hour later with a dominating 53.72 second 400m – winning by nearly two seconds. The performance was a lifetime best for Lauren, and her to fourth on the club’s all-time list.  She topped it off with a 24.19 second clocking in the 200m final – winning by nearly a second.
Rounding out the weekend, Oluwasegun Makinde won the 200m at the St. Laurent Selects twilight in Montreal in a seasonal best 20.71. The time ranks the University of Ottawa graduate fifth in Canada, just 21 hundredths of a second off the Olympic standard.

While her peers were trying to qualify for the Ottawa high school championships last week, Larissa Brown was looking to take another step towards this summer’s Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Competing at the IPC Desert Challenge in Tempe, Arizona over the weekend, Brown demonstrated she is moving in the right direction. The grade 11 student from St. Mark’s Catholic High School in Manotick ran and jumped her way into the Canadian record book, setting new mark’s in the T12 100m, 200m and long jump. The T12 classification indicates a profound visual impairment for the athlete including a narrow field of view.
Competing as the sole individual in her event classification, not uncommon in para competitions, Brown posted three world class performances. Friday began with the 200m, where she posted a time of 27.94 seconds to put her fourth in the IPC World Rankings. She followed that performance up less than an hour later with a 4.95m leap in the long jump, which currently places her fifth globally. Saturday, she concluded the competition with a 13.63 second run in the 100m, the seventh fastest time in the world this year.
Also in Tempe, Curtis Thom returned to the track for first time since 2014 after taking the 2015 season off. The Canadian record holder in the T54 400m, Thom completed the one lap race on Saturday in 49.85 seconds to qualify third to the final. However, with the quick turnaround later in the evening, Thom slid back to fifth in the final with 51.89 seconds. The 2012 Paralympian was also fourth in the 800m final and fifth in the 100m.
Fellow 2012 Paralympian Rachael Burrows was third in each of the T34 100m, 400m and 800m races.

A small contingent of athletes culminated their US spring tour on Friday night in Raleigh, North Carolina. Leading the way was Devyani Biswal finished second in the 100m hurdles in a time of 13.85 seconds – missing out on gold by 0.01 seconds.Biswal also posted a sixth place finish in the 200m with 25.65.
Gabriel Tesfaye also made the podium in Raleigh, finishing third in the 400m  hurdles with a time of 54.08 seconds.
At the Northeast Conference Championships in New Britain, Connecticut, Jeremie Venne picked up two bronze medals. The St. Francis University freshman ran a tactical 3 minutes 55.48 seconds in the 1500m to finish third and then helped his 4x800m to a medal as well.
In Colorado, Lauren Gale continued her domination of the high school track scene – claiming triple sprint gold at her conference championships. With wins of 12.15, 24.76 and 55.24 seconds, Gales treble led her Discovery Canyon team to a second place finish. She is currently ranked first in both the 200m and 400m in Colorado. She is also ranked second in the 100m.
In California, at the Oxy Invite, Karelle Edwards ran to a 4th place finish in the 100m hurdles in a time of 13.44 seconds. Former NCAA champion Ginnie Crawford won in 12.91. In the 800m, Samantha Murphy posted a fifth place finish with a time of 2 minutes 3.40 seconds.

The first big weekend of the summer track season went off with a bang for Ottawa Lions’ athletes as a sprinter Farah Jacques re-wrote the record book with a stunning performance at the Florida Relays in Gainesville.
Racing over 200m, Jacques produced a new lifetime best and club record time of 23.21 seconds to finish 9th in a field that included Olympic gold medalists Veronica Campbell-Brown and Francena McCorory. The time eclipses the old club mark of 23.24 set by Esther Akinsulie back in 2010 and is just 0.01 seconds off the Rio Olympic standard.
However, the 200m was not the only event which brought Jacques success over the weekend. Running as a member of the Canadian relay squad, Jacques and her Canadian teammates second in the 4x400m relay with a time of 3 minutes 30.92 seconds. The mark is currently the seventh fastest in the world in 2016.
Hurdler Sekou Kaba also kicked off his road to Rio in Gainesville with a speedy 13.71 second clocking. While one his fastest career openers, the wind was just over the allowable limit at 2.3 m/s.
In California, Adam Palamar proved he’s more than just a 1500m runner, turning in an excellent 5000m performance at the Stanford Invitational. A senior at Syracuse University, Adam finished 11th overall in 13 minutes 59.03 seconds. The performance vaults him to seven in club history. Also competing at Stanford, Samantha Murphy was sixth in the 800m in 2:05.05. Matt Bedard was 15th in the 400m hurdles in 54.54.
In nearby San Francisco, Erinn Stenman-Fahey dropped a nearly 11 second personal best in the 1500m, as she finished 14th in 4:33.44. Down the coast in Santa Barbara, club record holder Patrick Arbour kicked off his season with a second place finish in the Sam Adams Invitational decathlon. Arbour put up a score of 7384 points over the two day event.

Canadian athletes had an outstanding time at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015, taking eight medals across a variety of events, and while Tim Nedow finished a modest 20th in the men’s shot put qualifiers, he was infected by the ebullient spirt that pervaded the men and women wearing the famous maple leaf on their vests.
At the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 on Friday, it could be the turn of the big man from Brockville, Ontario, to follow in the footsteps of his team mates in the Chinese capital.
He already has a bronze medal from the 2014 Commonwealth Games and a silver gained at last year’s Pan American Games but now the chance for him to get a medal on the world stage awaits.
Continue reading on IAAF.org

At the New Balance Indoor Nationals in New York City last night, grade 11 student Shona McCulloch ran her way to a bronze medal with a time of 16:31.22 – 0.08 seconds faster than the previous Canadian Junior best set by Heather Petrick in 2014. WIth her new Canadian record, McCulloch becomes the second Lion to set a Canadian Junior indoor record on the famed Amory Track. Emma Galbraith set the 1000m standard there in 2013.

At the CIS Championships, Devyani Biswal, a fifth year student at the University of Ottawa, ran her way into the school record books twice en-route to winning her first Canadian University Championship in the 60m hurdles. A sizzling 8.40 second run in the final gave Biswal CIS gold. The time lowered her Gee Gee record of 8.44 seconds from her semi-final win.
In the field, Ashley Connell unleashed a massive fifth round throw in the shot put to jump into the silver position. Connell’s throw of 15.60m is a new school record for the University of Guelph student and also puts her fourth in club history – just two centimetres behind former Canadian Champion Melody Torcolacci. Also in the shot put, Leanna Garcia had a best throw of 13.27m to finish sixth.
In the men’s high jump, the dynamic duo of Steve Nkusi and Yvan Ntivumbura placed fifth and seventh respectively. Nkusi, the defending Canadian Junior Champion cleared 2.04m on his first attempt before missing his first jump at 2.07m before missing his final attempts at 2.10m. Ntivumbura on the other hand needed a third attempt to clear 2.01m before bowing out at 2.04m.
 
 
 

It was another successful day on Championship weekend as Lion athletes picked up another two gold on Saturday. Both victories came from Carleton University athletes as the school finished participating in the first RSEQ Conference Championship.
Telvin Tavernier, having already grabbed silver in the pole vault on Friday, took a step up the podium to win gold in the heptathlon. For his two medals and fifth place finish in the 60m hurdles, Telvin was a runner up for male athlete of the meet honours.
Sprinter David Bobak was also victorious, taking home the 300m title in a lifetime best of 34.55 seconds. Bobak narrowly edged out his competition for gold, winning by a mere one one hundredth of a second. The medal gave Carleton a total of three gold, one silver and one bronze in their first conference championship.
At the OUA Championships in Windsor, it was a clutch performance which got Yvan Ntivumbura on the podium. Yvan was sitting in fourth place and down to his final attempt as he made his final approach at 2.07m. Clearing the bar, the third year student solidified his bronze medal position while adding to 2cm to his personal best.
In the women’s weight throw, Ashley Connell, competing for the University of Guelph, picked up her second bronze of the weekend with a best throw of 17.15m. Connell’s two medals helped her Gryphons win the women’s team title.
At the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships in Boston, Adam Palamar picked up a bronze in the mile, finishing in 4 minutes 2.73 seconds. Palamar and his Syracuse Orangemen teammates also captured the ACC team title.
Other medal winners from the weekend included:
Matt Bedard, North Dakota State University – Summit League 4x400m Silver and Team Title
Lindsay Brandys, University of Toronto – OUA 4x200m Bronze
Liz Comeau, Dalhousie University – AUS Team Title
 
 
 

It’s conference championship weekend across North America, and Lions athletes kicked things off Friday with two golds, a silver and two bronze.
Highlighting the list of accomplishments on Friday was Devyani Biswal, a fifth year math and economics student, who shaved nearly a tenth of a second off her personal best to take the OUA 60m hurdle title in 8.45 seconds. With her time, Biswal cemented her place in the upcoming Canadian Interuniversity Sport Championship in two weeks as well as bested Ashlea Maddex’s previous University of Ottawa record of 8.49 set in 2011.
Competing in the Quebec University Championships, Amelia Brohman of Carleton University picked up the first conference gold in school history as she won the 60m in 7.63 seconds. She wasn’t the only speedster to get on the podium as Emmanuel Nwokobia picked up bronze in the men’s race in 7.15 seconds.
Also at the Quebec Championships in Montreal, Telvin Tavernier kicked things off with a bang, clearing 4.50 metres in the pole vault for silver. To make things more impressive, the performance came after the fourth year engineering student completed the first four events of the heptathlon. Telvin currently sits in 3rd, but will look to pick up valuable points in the pole vault.
The final medal of the day came from shot putter Ashley Connell. Competing for the University of Guelph, Connell managed to launch the 4kg ball out to 14.75m to finish in third. Fellow Lion, Leanna Garcia of the University of Windsor used a final round personal best of 13.54m to finish 6th overall.
Qualifying performances:
Erinn Stenman-Fahey qualifies for Big 12 800m final with time of 2:10.11.
Adam Palamar qualifies for final by winning his heat of the mile in 4:11.91 at the ACC Championship.
Lindsay Brandys ran 7.72 seconds in 60m heats at the OUA Championships to qualify 6th to the semi-final.
Final Performances
Katie Phillips finishes 4th over 3000m in 10:03.16 while Chelsea Gillies finishes 6th over 1000m in 2:52.54.
Jacob Powrie and Scott Hancock finish 6th and 7th respectively in the 60m hurdle final. Hancock also finished 8th in the men’s long jump final.