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As the Canadian Youth Nationals came to an end today, Lions athletes ended on a high note, picking up three more medals to end the championship with seven in total – including two gold. Sunday’s take included one silver and two bronzes.
Kicking things off was Erinn Stenman-Fahey in the 800m who repeated her silver medal performance of a year ago. The world junior semi-finalist looked to pick up her first national title before she was nipped at the line by Ginelle Dimone of Alberta. Stenman-Fahey finished in 2:11.16, a tenth of a second behind Dimone.
While Colle Thompson picked up the next medal, winning bronze in the youth girls 200m, it was a while before her result was finally confirmed. Thompson was actually one of two athletes to pick up a bronze in the race as she crossed the line in 25.73 seconds, exactly the same time as Jorden Savoury of Quebec. In fact, a mere two one hundredths of a second separated third from fifth in the race.
The final medal of the day came from intermediate hurdler Austin White. The Kemptville native finished third in the youth boys 300m hurdles in a time of 39.66 seconds, regaining the medal won by high school and club teammate Matt Bedard at last year’s championship. Competing in the youth girls 300m hurdles, Hailie McKechnie placed fifth.
 

It was another two medal day at the Canadian Youth Championships on Saturday for the Ottawa Lions as Shona McCulloch picked up her second gold of the championships while Keira Christie-Galloway used some last minute heroics to grab a silver.
After capturing the 1200m crown on Friday, McCulloch took to the track Saturday in the midget girls 2000m, an event where she broke the Ontario Legion record earlier this summer. Shona won in a new personal best time of 6:14.15, just off the championship record of 6:13.71 set back in 2010.
For Christie-Galloway, she used some last minute heroics to to pick up her first national medal. Even making it to the midget girls long jump final was a struggle for the OFSAA silver medalist who could only manage a leap of 4.96m to scrape into the final in 8th place. After fouls in rounds four and five, Keira leapt to a new personal best of 5.38m in the final round to finish in second.
Despite being 15, Christie-Galloway also moved up an age category to help the youth girls 4x100m relay team to a fourth place finish. The team, which also included Shyvonne Roxborough, Colle Thompson and Hailey McKechnie completed the lap in 48.59 seconds, just 0.01 seconds out of the bronze medal position. The quartet were the top ranked club in the event as the medals were captured by Alberta, Quebec and Saskatchewan.
Roxborough, who captured a silver Friday in the 100m, finished seventh in Saturday’s long jump final with a best leap of 5.15m.  Also picking up seventh places finishes were Alexa Livingstone, who ran 10:03.93 in the 3000m and Erinn Stenman-Fahey in the 400m. The youth boys 4x100m relay team of Geoffrey Lawson, Austin White, Ethan Goodchild and Mitchell Frizell finished eighth in 44.53.
The action in Langley wraps up today.

It was a successful start to the 2014 Canadian Youth National Championships for the Ottawa Lions in Langley, BC today. Distance standout Shona McColloch kicked things off in style by capturing her first national medal, winning the midget girls 1200m in 3:31.70. It was a tight battle for McColloch against Sevanne Ghazarian of Guelph who finished just a tenth of a second behind.
The other medal of the day came from Shyvonne Roxborough, who picked up a silver in the youth girls 100m. Running into a 1.3 m/s headwind, Roxborough crossed the line in 12.31 seconds, just 0.09 seconds behind Taryn Smiley of British Columbia. Colle Thompson finished sixth in the final with a time of 12.60 seconds.
Hurdlers also had a successful day one, with four Lions putting together top eight finishes. The top finisher was Keira Christie-Galloway, who finished fourth in the midget girls 80m hurdles in a time of 11.87 seconds. Teammate Alexandra Ethier finished eighth in the same race in 12.23. In the youth boys 110m hurdles, Geoffrey Lawson finished fifth in a personal best 14.65 seconds, while Hailie McKechnie finished eighth in the youth girls 80m hurdles in 15.89.
 

For more than 28 years, there was a noticeable void in Wendy Alexis’s non-stop life as a caring wife, mother and teacher.

It was nothing serious. But there was a task she had started as a teenager and hadn’t finished. Then an opportunity presented itself to revisit that plan and pursue some athletic happiness almost three decades later.

While driving her son, Jordan, to an Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club practice one day nine years ago, Alexis, then 50, was struck with the idea of making a comeback as a sprinter. She was one of the country’s best dashers in the early 1970s (Wendy Braiden), but her athletic career was crushed when she didn’t make the 1972 Summer Olympics team and had subsequent leg injuries.

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It was a successful weekend at the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Under 23 championships for sprint hurdler Ashlea Maddex and 400m runner Devin Biocchi. The pair each captured a medal at the biennial championship being held in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Maddex, a bronze medallist in 2012, got things started on Saturday by repeating the feat. Aided by a 2.2 m/s wind at her back, the native of Pascal, Ontario crossed the line in an all conditions best 13.19 seconds. The race was won by American LeTristan Pledger in 13.04 seconds. Maddex also picked up a silver medal as a member of Canada’s 4x400m relay.
Lining up in the men’s 4x400m relay, Biocchi captured his first international medal while running on the second leg. The Canadian team finished in 3:08.78 while the team from the United States won in 3:04.34.

Lions athletes will be in action on two continents tomorrow, competing in Belgium and British Columbia.
Competing at the Flanders Cup – Meeting Voor Mon in Leaven, Belgium tomorrow will be Sekou Kaba, Oluwasegun Makinde, and Farah Jacques. For Kaba and Jacques, this is their third stop on their European tour while Makinde joined the duo following the Commonwealth Games.
Sekou has had a successful tour, having run a hundredth of a second of his personal best in the 110m hurdles at his first competition last week in Ninove, Belgium and followed it up with a victory Wednesday night in Copenhagen. Jacques made the podium in both competitions while Oluwasegun placed fourth in the 100m in Copenhagen.
Makinde and Jacques will line up in the 100m while Kaba will race in his customary 110m hurdles.
Back in Canada, hurdler Ashlea Maddex is set to race at the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Under 23 championships. This is Maddex’s second time racing Canada at the NACAC championships. She previously won bronze two years ago in Mexico. Her final is set for 5:20 pm eastern.
Results from Belgium are available here.
NACAC results are available here.

As the summer of Ottawa Twilight Meets concluded Wednesday night at Terry Fox, we present to you the final instalment of the Twilight Meet 3 stars.
In no particular order:

• Tolu Makinde for completing the sprinting double, winning the 100m in 10.74, and the 200m in 21.89.
• Erinn Stenman-Fahey for winning the 400m in 57.16, more than four and a half seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.
•  
  Jason Dunkerley and his guide runner Josh Karanja for finishing second in the 3000m in a new Canadian T11 record of 9:07.55. The previous record 9:37.00 had been set by Jason in 2001.

Congratulations to all those who competed last night. We hope you all enjoyed another excellent summer of Twilight meeets.

With eight medals on the final day of the 2014 Athletics Ontario Bantam/Midget/Youth Championships, the Ottawa Lions secured their seventh provincial midget team title in eight years and tenth straight overall Ontario Club Championship.
Among the medallists was the midget girls sprint medley team of Keira Christie-Galloway, Alexandra Ethier, Lauren Gale and Shona McCulloch who took home gold in a time of 4:11.46 while also shaving three tenths off the provincial record set by Laurel Creek in 2012. For Christie-Galloway, it was her third gold medal of the weekend following her win in the 80m hurdles on Sunday.
Shona McColloch pick up two other golds on Sunday, to go with Saturday’s win in the 1200m, as she dominated the 2000m field, winning by more than 20 seconds in 6:28.74. McColloch was also joined the quartet of Natalie Day, Aja Penny and Jenna Rossi to win the midget girls 4x800m in 10:04.09.
Picking up a silver in the youth girls 200m final was Colle Thompson who set a new lifetime best as she crossed the line in 25.09 seconds with the following wind just under the allowable limit at 1.9 m/s. In the field, Emily Sprague cleared 1.60m in the youth girls high jump to grab a share of the bronze medal.
Also picking medals on the final day were the midget boys 4x800m and sprint medley relay team who won silver and bronze respectively.
 

Sultana Frizell didn’t get a chance to march in the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.
But she’ll be front and centre when the event wraps up tonight.
The hammer thrower was named Canada’s flagbearer for the closing ceremony after defending her gold medal from four years ago in impressive fashion.
Frizell — who set a new Commonwealth record in the event on three separate occasions in Glasgow — did not participate in opening ceremony on July 23 because she was still training at a camp in Portugal.
The 29-year-old from Perth, Ont., said she was both surprised and honoured to be asked to carry the Maple Leaf into Hampden Park.
“Last night everyone took me into a back room and they were like ’Sultana, we’ve got something to tell you.’ And I was like ‘Is somebody dead?“’ the bubbly Frizell joked. “It was never really in my head. I see the people carrying the flag and I’m like ‘Hey that’s really cool and it would be really nice to do it someday.’
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It was a successful day for the Ottawa Lions at the Athletics Ontario Bantam/Midget/Youth Championships, which kicked off Saturday morning at the University of Windsor. The tally was led by five golds, including a new Ontario club record in the midget girls 4x100m relay. The team of Mikayla Trudeau-Meisner, Lauren Gale, Keira Christie-Galloway and Alexandra Ethier crossed the line in a blistering fast, 49.28 seconds, a second and half ahead of the second place Windsor Legion. The previous record of 49.2h, set by the Scarborough Optimists, had stood since 1982!
For both Christie-Galloway and Ethier, relay gold was their second medal of the day as Keira grabbed individual gold in the long jump with a leap of 5.15m and Alexandra took home silver in the 200m hurdles.
Also picking up gold on day one was Shona McCulloch who put on a dominating performance the midget girls 1200m, winning by 12 seconds in 3:34.06. Finn Perrault stepped atop the podium in the midget boys 1500m steeplechase, winning a tight battle in 4:59.40, while Shyvonne Roxborough rounded out the gold medallists as she broke the 12 second barrier for the first time, winning the youth girls 100m in a windy 11.98. Shyvonne also teamed up with Colle Thompson, Hailey McKechnie and Kyesia Fraser to finish second in the youth girls 4x100m relay.
Bronze medals on day one were also awarded to the following relay teams:

• Midget boys 4x100m – Matteus Lawford, Ismael Toure, Aidan Schottler-Raymond, and Evan Wilson
• Youth girls 4x400m – Kathryn David, Caitlin Fischer, Gabrielle Campeau and Hailey McKechnie
• Youth boys 4x400m – Jonah Hayes-Cook, Eric Palamar, Austin White, and Justin Cuddihey