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The day has come for Erinn Stenman-Fahey – the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships kick off today in Eugene, Oregon where the Canterbury student is set to step on to to the track at the historic Hayward Field for round one of the 800m.
Stenman-Fahey, who earned her ticket to Eugene by placing second in the 800m two weeks ago at the Canadian Junior Championships, will line up in heat 3, lane 7. With the top 3 in each heat automatically advancing to the semi-finals, plus the next four fastest times, Erinn will undoubtedly be in tough to move on. She enters the competition ranked sixth in her heat with a best time of 2:08.09. The competition’s top ranked runner is Sahily Diago of Cuba who holds a best of 1:57.74 from earlier this year.
The 800m heats kick off at 3:15 pm eastern, with Erinn’s race scheduled for 3:29. You can catch the action live via USATF.tv
 

After losing the junior crown in 2013 for just the first time in eight years, the Ottawa Lions came back with authority in 2014 – capturing their 10th Athletics Ontario Junior Team Championship in 12 years. Scoring 209 valuable team points over this past weekend, the Lions junior team more than doubled their nearest competitor – University of Toronto Track Club with 102 points.
Leading the under 20 team were Alexia Lamothe, Matt Bedard and Charifa Labarang who each collected individual gold. Lamothe contributed an astounding 36 points after winning the 100m hurdles in a personal best 14.07 and picking up a silver in the 400m hurdles in 1:00.46 – also a personal best. Lamothe was also a member of the gold medal winning 4x100m relay and silver medal winning 4x400m relay teams.
Bedard picked his first provincial 400m title on Saturday, using a late surge to take the win in a personal best 48.44 – just 0.02 seconds ahead of Khalil Parris of Border City Athletic Club. Matt looked on pace to make it a double with the 400m hurdles before falling over the eight barrier. However, he would recover to still pick up a bronxze. He also picked up two relay golds, running on the junior 4x400m team, and also stepping up to help the seniors in the 4x100m.
Labarang picked up the title of Ontario’s fastest junior woman, taking the 100m title in 12.26 seconds. The University of Ottawa student also part of  the silver medal winning senior women’s 4x100m team.
In the senior category, the Lions lost the senior team championship for only the third time in 15 years, finishing in second behind the University of Toronto Track Club. The lone individual senior champion was Sekou Kaba in the 110m hurdles. His winning time of 13.68 seconds was also a new lifetime best.

Cuba’s Yordanis Garcia and Canada’s Natasha Jackson took the top honours at the 3^rd Pan American Combined Events Cup at Ottawa’s Terry Fox Stadium on Friday (18).
Garcia successfully defended his 2013 title and moved to sixth place on the 2014 IAAF Combined Events Challenge standings while Jackson achieved her first international victory.
A comfortable leader after the first day, Garcia extended his lead on the second day and scored 8179 points, a meet record, 33 points more than his 2013 total.
His teammate and 2012 champion Jose Mendieta was a distant second with 7559 while James Turner scored a personal best of 7408 to win bronze and the national title as the event also served as the Canadian Combined Events Championships.
Canada’s 2013 IAAF World Championships bronze medallist Damian Warner stopped after four events as he prepares for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games.
“I am happy with my win, but I wanted a higher total. I am happy with several events, including the 400m and the javelin, but underperformed in the discus and the 110 hurdles. Every decathlon is a lesson. I will go back and prepare for my next meeting in Talence in September,” said Garcia.
In the heptathlon, Jackson set three personal bests in the shot put, long jump and 800m and led the 100 hurdles with a windy 13.43 to total 5928 points, a huge personal best by almost 200 points.
“I was overall amazed with how everything went. I have a ton of support from a lot of people. This win is very encouraging, especially after having surgery last year,” said Jackson.
She plans to complete her last heptathlon of the year in Holland at the end of August.
USA’s Lindsay Schwartz, third 12 months ago, improved to silver this time with 5835 points, ahead of Canada’s Rachael McIntosh, who was third with 5763.
Two of the favourites, Cuba’s 2011 world youth champion Yosleidys Mendieta and 2013 South American silver medallist Ana Pirelli, of Paraguay, were relegated to seventh and eighth, respectively.
Jillian Drouin, the older sister of London 2012 Olympic Games high jump bronze medallist Derek Drouin, actually scored the highest total with 5972 points, a personal best, to win the Canadian title although she was not part of the Canadian team and so her score didn’t count in the Cup.
The Cuban men and the Canadian women took the team honours after adding the totals of their top two athletes.
Hosted by the Ottawa Lions, Canada’s largest athletics club, the continental event is an annual fixture of the Association of Pan American Athletics.
This year saw 94 youth, junior and senior athletes from 10 countries competing in the Cup.
 

Ottawa, ON – Athletics Ontario’s Outdoor Junior & Senior Track and Field Championships are set to take place this weekend (Saturday July 19, and Sunday July 20) in Ottawa, ON. This meet has attracted experienced international competitors including TJ Lawrence, from G-Force Track Club, who competed at the Indoor World Championships this year. Additionally, 2014 Canadian Championship bronze medallist, Ashley Maddex, from the Ottawa Lions TFC will be looking for gold in an extremely competitive women’s 100m hurdles field, which includes 2012 Olympian, Nikkita Holder of Project Athletics Track & Field Program.
The meet will feature approximately 700 athletes and is hosted by the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club and will take place at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility. Events will begin Saturday morning at 10:30 am with the Senior Women’s Javelin, Senior Men’s Long Jump and the Junior & Senior Men’s Shot Put. The first event on the track will be the 100m Heats, starting at 11:00 am. With admission only $5 per person, and children 12 and under are FREE, make sure to bring the family and catch some of Canada’s present and future track and field stars in action.
In the Overall Provincial Outdoor Club Standings, the Ottawa Lions TFC will be looking for the 10th consecutive Team title, after having won each year since 2005. In the Senior category, the Lions, have won the past 3 years. In the Junior category, the University of Toronto Track Club are the reigning club champions, after accumulating enough points to dethrone the Lions, whom had won the previous 8 years. Windsor Legion, London-Western TFC, Speed River and York University TFC, will be sending strong contingents as well.
The Ottawa Lions TFC will be gearing up for this Provincial Championship event, following their hosting of the 2014 Combined Events Festival, which includes the Panamerican Combined Events Cup and Canadian Junior/Senior Combined Events Championships, which takes place at the nation’s capital at Terry Fox Athletics Facility at Mooney’s Bay, and started Wednesday and runs through Friday. It was also announced by Athletics Canada, that Ottawa will be the host for the 2017 & 2018 Canadian Junior & Senior Championships.
More information including the final schedule, the performance list and the technical information can be found at the following link:

• http://athleticsontario.ca/ao-outdoor-junior-senior-championships/

Events to Watch
Event: Senior Women’s 100m Hurdles
Event Highlights: Two Ottawa Lions TFC athletes, Ashley Maddex (2012 NACAC U-23 bronze medallist, ranked 7th in Canada and was the bronze medallist at the 2014 Canadian Championships) and Karelle Edwards (ranked 10th in Canada) are amongst the favourites in this highly competitive event. Hayley Warren of University of Toronto Track and Field Club, ranked 5th overall in Canada and 2012 Olympian, Nikkita Holder of Project Athletics, ranked 11th overall in Canada will no doubt add a blast of energy to the Terry Fox Athletic Facility.
Schedule Event Time: Day 1 Semi-finals at 12:10pm, Finals at 3:05pm
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Event: Senior Men’s 100m
Event Highlights: TJ Lawrence of G-Force TC, tied for the 7th overall ranking in Canada, he recently competed at the World Indoor Track & Field Championships back in March. Also in the race are Aaron Bowman of London, Ontario and Michael Leblanc of South-East Athletics (New Brunswick), both tied for the 10th overall ranking in Canada at the 100m distance.
Scheduled Event Time:  Day 1 Heats begin at 11:00am, Semi-finals at2:45pm, Finals at 3:25pm
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Event: Junior Women’s Shot Put
Event Highlights:  Obeng Marfo of York University TC, ranked 1st in Canada in the Junior women’s shot put, and 6th in the Junior women’s discus. She was a member of the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships team. Her teammate, Fatim Ammor, ranked 4th overall in Canada will also be competing.
Scheduled Event Time: Day 1 11:00am
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Event: Junior Men’s High Jump
Event Highlights: 2014 Canadian Junior Gold medallist from Quebec, Philippe St-Hilaire of Les Vainqueurs will be challenged by #2 Ranked, Leaugen Fray of Quinte West TC and Tacuma Anderson-Richards, from Pickering, Ontario, ranked 2nd and 4th juniors in Canada respectively. Tacuma was a member of Canada’s 2013 Pan Am Junior team following a bronze medallist finish at the Canadian Junior Championships.
Scheduled Event Time: Day 2 10:0am
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More Athletes to Watch
Charifa Labarang, the Ottawa Lions Club product is competing in the Junior Women’s 100 (Day 1 at 11) and 200 (Day 2 at 10:30) metre events. Ranked 13th and 23rd in Canada in the respective events, she is the top seed in both events at this meet.

Ottawa – Athletics Canada announced today that the 2017 and 2018 Canadian Junior / Senior Track and Field Championships will be held in Ottawa, Ont. Athletics Canada, the City of Ottawa, Ottawa Tourism and the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club jointly made the official announcement this morning at Terry Fox Athletic Facility.
“The City of Ottawa is pleased to welcome Athletics Canada and looks forward to hosting the athletes, coaches, families and spectators that will come here to compete, cheer and enjoy our city,” said Mayor Jim Watson. “The Canadian Track and Field Championships is a welcome addition to our planning for Ottawa 2017.”
Athletics Canada announced in March that as of 2015 the Canadian Track and Field Championships will comprise junior (19 and under) and senior (19 and over) age categories, as well as continued para-athletics integration.
Ottawa last played host to the Canadian Track and Field Championships in 2006, “We are very excited to be in Ottawa for the 2017 and 2018 edition of the Championships, it’s fitting to be in the nation’s capital to help celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday,” said Rob Guy, Athletics Canada Chief Executive Officer. “The City of Ottawa, Ottawa Tourism and the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club will help us put on a great competition for 1,500 athletes, and a great show for Ottawa sport fans.”
The Canadian Track and Field Championships is a four-day competition for the nation’s best Olympic and Paralympic athletes. The championship serves as selection trials for national teams, such as the World Championships, World Junior Championships, Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, and Pan/Parapan American Games.
The backdrop for today’s announcement at Terry Fox Athletic Facility, site of the 2017 and 2018 Canadian Track and Field Championships, was the 2014 Panamerican Combined Events Cup and Combined Events Canadian Junior and Senior Championships. The event runs through Friday. More on that event here.

Hammer thrower Sultana Frizell describes her little slice of track and field — slowly waving a ball and chain overhead and then rapidly spinning four times in a claustrophobic circle before finally flinging the snake-like projectile — as “controlled chaos.”

Funny, that’s also an apt description of her personal life in 2013, which impacted her results, but made a greater impression on her family.

However, after continually driving the Ottawa to Perth to Kingston loop to care for her ailing mother and father and aging grandmother, fitting in practices and competitions, and then contemplating retirement as Canada’s most successful hammer thrower, Frizell has emerged a significantly better athlete and person.

Continue reading

At the national championships in Moncton, Melissa Bishop told the interview track side she wasn’t looking for a fast time – just another gold medal. She would be aiming for a new personal best on the National Track League’s west coast swing.
Well, the Eganville native got her second national championship and Tuesday night in Victoria picked up another personal best in the 800 metres. Finishing the two lap race in 1:59.7, Bishop erases her old Ontario and Club record of 1:59.76 set last year in Vancouver. The time also topped Diane Cummins meet record of 1:59.73 set in 2006.
Also competing in Victoria was Michael Robertson. The national silver medalist over 400m was second again Tuesday night, finishing in 46.51. Akeem Gauntlett of Jamaica was the winner in 45.88
Watch Melissa Bishop speaks with Flotrack about her personal best and upcoming Commonwealth Games
 

Ottawa – Defending Canadian champion Damian Warner and 2013 title holder Yordani Garcia of Cuba will battle at the 3rd Pan American Combined Events Cup, which will crown a new women’s champion in Ottawa July 16-18.

The Cup is part of the 2014 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, a 15-stop Series featuring the world’s top decathletes and heptathletes.

As the event will also serve as the Canadian Championships, 2013 World Championships bronze medallist Warner will defend his title from Moncton in 2013. Ottawa will be his first decathlon of the year, after competing at the World Indoor Championships in Sopot.

The 24-year old should encounter strong opposition from defending champion, two-time Olympian Garcia, who has shown impressive form this year.

Former World Youth champion and record holder Garcia opened his season with a world leading 8337 in Havana and confirmed his fine shape with 8299 for fourth place in Gotzis, considered to be the unofficial annual world championships for combined eventers.

Garcia, 25, won the continental cup in Ottawa last year with a score of 8141, a record that could be well be broken this time around.

His countryman and 2012 Pan American Cup champion Jose Mendieta is also expected to be a top medal contender, as well as Devin Dick, Derek Masterson and Kyle Brondyke of the USA, Cuba’s Manuel Gonzalez and Brazil’s Felipe Vinicius Dos Santos.

Second at the 2013 National Championships and eighth at the 2013 World University Games, Patrick Arbour will be the second Canadian representative.

In the women’s field, there will be will a new champion as two-time winner Yorgelis Rodriguez of Cuba opted out to defend her world junior crown a few days later in Eugene.

Her compatriot Yosleidys Mendieta is the only woman registered who have broken the 6,000-point barrier, which she has twice, in 2013 and earlier this year.

The 2011 World Youth and 2013 Pan American junior champion is looking for redemption in Ottawa after fading to fourth last year at the event following a poor 800 run.

The other two medalists from last year are back. Paraguay’s Ana Pirelli broke her national record to clinch silver in 2013 and has continued to improve following her gold medal performance at the South American Games in Chile.

Bronze medallist Lindsay Schwartz of the USA set a season’s best of 5942 earlier this year and will try to improve from her 9th placing at the National Championships.

Other top medal contenders are Cuba’s Yilian Durruthy, fifth in 2012, Canada’s Rachael McIntosh, eighth at the 2013 World University Game and Natasha Jackson, USA’s Lindsay Lettow, Deanna Latham and Brazil’s Tamara de Sousa.

The Cup is also open to junior and youth athletes, who will compete July 16-17. Elite athletes will contest the Heptathlon and Decathlon July 17-18. In total, close to 100 athletes from eight countries will compete at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility in Ottawa.

“As an organizer, it has been really gratifying to have the growth we have seen in the Pan Am Cup over the past three years with participation nearly doubling from 46 athletes in 2012 to 90 entries already this year. However, it’s not just the sheer number of athletes competing, even if it is the largest combined events competition ever in Canada, the depth of field is outstanding,” said meet director Andy McInnis.

The situation was pretty simple for Erinn Stenman-Fahey. Finish in the top two and book your ticket to Eugene, Orgeon for the upcoming IAAF World Junior Championships for your first national team appointment. Seems simple enough. Certainly, the way Erinn ran Sunday’s 800m final, it seemed simple. The grade 11 student from Canterbury High School bided her time in the first lap, sitting sixth at the bell before picking people off on the back stretch kicking it into another gear with 200m to go as she finished in 2:08.79 with a shiny silver medal around her neck.

Erinn will become the first Lion to compete at the biannual event since 2010 when Ashlea Maddex and Oluwasegun Makinde represented Canada in Moncton, New Brunswick. She will also become the first woman in club history to qualify for World Juniors in the 800m.

The day’s other medal came from the quartet of Shyvonne Roxborough, Alexia Lamothe, Alexandra Telford and Clara Phillips as the ladies picked up a bronze in the 4x100m relay in a time of 48.85 seconds.

Just missing out on a second podium finish was Lamothe as she finished fourth in the 400m hurdle final despite running a lifetime best 1:00.95. Alexia picked up another fourth place finish in the women’s  4x400m relay. Herself and teammates Reilly Jones, Bridget Hayes and Stenman-Fahey finished in 3 minutes 50.83 seconds, just less than four tenths behind bronze medal winning British Columbia.

Pole vaulter Zachary Kerr got day two of the Canadian Junior Championships started off on the right foot, picking up the first medal of the championships for a Lions athlete. Kerr, a four time OFSAA champion, had a best clearance of 4.45m before failing on three attempts to equal his lifetime best, 4.55m. The height left him in a tie with Connor Young of Speed River, but Kerr was declared the silver medalist by virtue of clearing 4.45m with fewer attempts.
Alexia Lamothe had a successful day in the hurdles. The recent Carine Wilson grad continued to prove she is one of the top junior sprint hurdlers in the country, finishing fifth in the 100m hurdle final. Her time of 14.33 seconds, just off her personal best, was made more impressive by the -1.7 m/s headwind. However, Lamothe’s day wasn’t over as she returned in the evenings session to put up the fourth fastest time in qualifying for the 400m hurdles, advancing to today’s final.
In the penultimate event of day two, the women’s 3000m event, 17 year old Claire Smith showed she was running for a spot on the World Junior Championship team from the gun with the top two runners making the team. By the 1 km mark, the trio of Smith, Gabriella Stafford and Heather Petrick had clearly asserted themselves as the front runners. However, fronting running by Smith in the windy conditions seemed to catch up with her in the final 500m as Stafford and Petrick began to pull away and she was eventually passed by two others with about 250m to go as she would cross the line in 5th. Her time of 9:37.79 was the third best performance of her life.
The two other top eight finishes of the day came from high jumper Steve Nkusi and hammer thrower Leanna Garcia. Nkusi, a bronze medalist at the recent OFSAA Championships, had a best clearance of 1.99m to finish sixth. Garcia, who just completed her first year of studies at the University of Windsor, produced a best throw of 45.48m to finish eighth in the hammer throw.