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In the final event of day one at the 2013 IPC World Championships in athletics, wheelchair racer Josh Cassidy finished fourth in the T54 10,000m. In a very tightly contested final, Cassidy missed out on a podium finish by just 0.15 seconds, crossing the line in 23:06.08. Josh’s next event will be the 800m semi-finals on Monday morning.
In the women’s T34 200m, Rachel Burrows replicated her Paralympic Games finish from a year ago, placing sixth in a time of 39.93 seconds. The time for Burrows was her second best of the season. She will next be in action on Monday in the T34 100m final.
On day two of the championships, the only Lion in action will be wheelchair racer Curtis Thom who will be contesting the T54 400m. His semi-final goes at 4:23 am Eastern where he’ll need to finish in the top three or produce one of the two fastest non-qualifying times to advance to the final at 1:27 pm Eastern.

With the 7th IPC World Championships tomorrow in Lyon, France, two Lions will be roll to the line with a shot a medal. Canadian champion Rachel Burrows will kick things off with the T34 200m final at 10:04 am Eastern. A finalist at last year’s Paralympic Games final, Burrows enters the championship with a seasonal best of 38.49 and will be looking to improve upon her current 6th place world ranking.
The other Lion in action on day one of the Championships will be Josh Cassidy, competing in the T54 10,000m final. Cassidy, who produced a seasonal best effort of 21:36.25 in Canberra in January, enters the race as the number five ranked competitor. Josh’s race goes off at 1:07 pm Eastern and as with Rachel,both can be viewed live online on Paralympic TV.

Application Deadline: July 24, 2013
Position: Office Manager
Job Description:
The Ottawa Lions Track & Field Club is the largest and the most successful track & field club in Canada.  We have developed a comprehensive approach towards our sport that includes programs for all – no matter the age, no matter the aspiration.   The club is a not-for-profit organisation that is professionally managed and that relies on a volunteer coaching staff.   The Ottawa Lions Track & Field Club is looking to hire a Office Manager.
Reporting to the Executive Director, the Office Manager’s primary function will be to act in a client service function to athletes, members, coaches and parents in the club.  The candidate must be bilingual in both French and English, have a passion for amateur sports, be extremely client service oriented, technologically strong and possess solid leadership skills.   See the attached job description for further information.

• University degree, college diploma or equivalent work experience
• Fully bilingual and proven effective verbal and written communicator.
• Excellent computer skills in a Microsoft Windows environment, including Microsoft Outlook, PowerPoint, Word and Excel.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines and work well under pressure.
• Strong organizational skills, time management skills and attention to detail required.
• Ability to work flexible hours, including weekends and travel as required.

Please submit your resumé and cover letter in confidence via e-mail by Wednesday, July 24, 2013: jobs@ottawalions.com
Salary Range: $40,000 per year (based on 40-hour work week)
Contact Information:
Richard Deneault
Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club
Chair, Human Resources Committee
richdeneault@gmail.com
Full Job Description

With a bronze medal from the national senior championships and a new Canadian record in his back pocket, Adam Palamar knew people would definitely be gunning for him as he looked to repeat as Canadian Junior 1500m champion. Nonetheless, Palamar showed he was the class of the field in Saturday’s final as he led from the gun, battling the wind to easily pick up his second consecutive junior title in 3:51.04, with the next closest competitor finished more than two seconds behind. Also in the race was teammate Alex Wilkie who pulled out a top 10 finish with a 4:00.76 clocking. Palamar would later follow up his 1500m victory by winning his 800m semi-final – advancing him to Sunday’s finals.
In the decathlon, both Matthew Johnson and Kevin Nault had a phenomenal second day as each man added more than 400 points to their overall personal best coming into the meet. Johnson, who finished in sixth with 6110 points, pulled off one of the most interesting feats of the championship as he made his first attempt at 4.00m in the pole vault. Shortly after taking off the ground his pole snapped in half, sending him flying onto the mat where he landed safely, but it was a small piece of his pole that flew 75 metres across the track to land in the combined events tent that caught the attention of a few. Despite the set back, Johnson would go on to clear 4.20m, a height equal to that of the bronze medalist in the open competition.
One of the busiest individuals on the second day of the championship was 19 year old Charlotte Gardner who appeared to be the only individual contesting the difficult 400m/800m double. After running to a season best 57.18 seconds in the 400m, Gardner came back less than 30 minutes later to run in the qualifying section of the 800m. As the field went through 400m in a pedestrian 70 seconds, Gardner was able to make use of her 400m speed to sprint past most of the field to cross the line in second and advance to the evening semi-finals where she would run the second best race of her life, 2:17.63 – two spots out of the final.
Heading into the third and final day on Sunday, keep an eye out for medal threats Adam Palamar in the 800m, Ashley Connell in the shot put and of course the boys and girls relay teams.

He wasn’t even supposed to be there originally, but as a late addition to the Canadian team at the 2013 World University Games, Michael Robertson showed the coaches they made a great choice as he helped Canada to a silver medal in the 4x400m relay. The quartet that also included Benjamin Ayesu-Attah from Coquitlam, B.C.,Brendon Rodney of Toronto and Daniel Harper of Brampton, Ont. crossed the line in 3:05.26, the fastest time by a Canadian team in a number of years.
Robertson’s run in the 4x400m relay came after an earlier appearance in the 4×100 relay final where he was teamed with club mate Oluwasegun Makinde. The pair teamed up with Sam Effah of Calgary and Brendon Rodney to originally cross the line in fifth place with a time of 39.39, but were later disqualified.
In Ste Therese at the Canadian Junior Championships, the first day of the decathlon wrapped up with Matt Johnson and Kevin Nault both on pace for a personal best. In the 1500m semi-finals, Canadian record holder Adam Palamar  easily advanced to the final by winning his heat in 3:58.71. Teammate, Alex Wilkie advanced on time, out of the same heat, crossing the line in 4:00.58.
Also advancing to a final were Charlotte Gardner and youth athlete Reilly Jones in the women’s 400m. Gardner and Jones went 2-3 in the first semi-final.
Finishing out the evening, Charlene Rhead finished sixth in the 2000m steeplechase final in 7:10.13. Teammate Maggie Schuenert placed 13th with a time of 7:33.53.
 

Two years after his fifth place finish at 2011 World University Games in Shenzen, China, Oluwasegun Makinde was looking move up a couple notches on the results page today, with his eyes set on a medal. Entering the final with the fourth fastest time, he was certainly in contention, although running from lane seven meant he couldn’t see the majority of his competitors. As Makinde came off the corner and headed for home he was in a dead heat for third with the Japanese competitor, Shota IIzuka. Izuka would pull ahead of him in the final 100m leaving Makinde to out duel his compatriot, Brendon Rodney for fourth. The University of Ottawa student crossed the line in a windy 20.61 seconds and had just one comment about his race to friends and family on his Facebook page, “So close.”
From yesterday’s competition, 25 year old Patrick Arbour finished up the decathlon with a score of 7240 points to finish in 8th place overall. It was an up an down second day for the Canadian silver medalist as he won the discus with a best throw of 47.64m, but had his lowest vault of the season at 4.20m and finished up with a 5:08.00 1500m. Like Makinde, Arbour took to Facebook following the competition, saying only, “Disappointing finish. Time to Rest.” The next decathlon for Arbour will take place in late August as he competes in the Woerden International in Holland as a warm up to participating in September’s Francophone Games in Nice, France.
Next up for the Ottawa Lions in Kazan is Michael Robertson, who will be competing in his second World University Games. The University of Ottawa graduate student was a late addition to the national team, and is expected to run on either of the 4x100m or 4x400m relays and possibly both. If on the 4x100m squad, he would be joined by Makinde.
You can watch all of the action from the track live online at LIVE FISU TV

Friday night in Victoria, 800m runner Melissa Bishop did something she’s done four times before – break the club record. Bishop culminated her National Track League schedule with her third victory in three attempts, crossing the line in a club record 1:59.76. With the victory, Melissa also claimed the overall NTL 800m title, out duelling fellow World Championship Team member Karine Belleau-Béliveau 40 points to 36.
Bishop, who has been quickly finding her stride since early June, believes she has more left in the tank. “This track has always produced fast times, and they always get a good crowd out here,” Bishop said. “This [her time Friday] is huge. And I think I’ve got more in me.” She will get her chance in the coming weeks as she heads to  Europe for a race or two before making her way to the Canadian pre-worlds camp in Kamen, Germany.
Also in Victoria, hammer thrower Sultana Frizell made it two in a row, winning her second NTL event in five days with a meet record throw of 68.89m. With the victory, Frizell secured her first NTL title after three attempts and with it, the $4500 in championship prize money. Rounding out the Lion contingent was hurdler Ashlea Maddex who finished 4th in Victoria with a time of 13.66 seconds.
Also in action Friday night was a small group of middle distance runners who headed down the 401 to compete in the London Distance Series 1500m Night. It proved to be a successful evening on the track with four runners hitting personal best times, highlighted by Mohamed Souleiman’s 3:45.66 clocking for second place overall. On the women’s side, Alana Shearman took more than four seconds off her previous best running across the line in 4:45.28.

Canadian 10K champion, Josh Cassidy, won the 44th Shepherd Center Wheelchair Division of the AJC Peachtree Road Race yesterday, 15 seconds ahead of second place Josh George of USA… but he almost didn’t make it to Atlanta for the race.
Earlier this week his 10 hour flight back from a Grand Prix event in Birmingham, UK, turned into a 34 hour journey with interruptions in Newark. After delays, cancellations, a night at the airport, and rerouting, Cassidy’s $6000 state of the art racing wheelchair was ‘lost’ in transit by United Airlines.  Josh missed several training sessions this past week between travel delays and the missing equipment, a critical amount to maintain performance for competitions of this level – his usual regime is two training sessions a day, 6 days a week.
He managed to piece together and old racing chair to train eventually Tuesday night, but it didn’t feel quite right.
Cassidy compared it to “running in an old pair of shoes that don’t fit properly anymore.”
When there was no sign of his chair by Wednesday morning, Cassidy had to cancel his flight, and tell the organizers he wouldn’t be racing. Later Wednesday afternoon he finally tracked down his equipment at customs at Toronto Pearson Airport.
Josh decided he needed to still try and make it to Atlanta and “give it a crack”.
“I went in [to Toronto Pearson Airport], found the box containing my racing chair a demolished crumpled mess. Checked it out, looked like the chair was in one piece, packed it back up, went upstairs and booked a new flight, got into Atlanta around midnight, got my chair and rain gear ready, went to bed around 2 am, up 3 hours later, and was on the line for the 6:45am start.”
“I really didn’t know how it was going to turn out. I really hoped I would make top 5, with the field there. It has been tough in the usual post-olympic year financial slump.. really needed to try and win some prize money to continue funding training. I knew the scenario wasn’t optimal, but I had to block that out.”
“My coach [Amanda Fader] was laughing at me.. she knows I thrive off of these chaotic situations. I think she knew if anyone could win after a week like this, it was me. I think I just love accepting the challenge of doing the improbable when everything seems to be going against me.”
The race started at 6:45 a.m. at Lenox Square with the temperature at 70 degrees.  In wet and rainy conditions, the 6.2-mile course was wheeled under yellow-flag conditions signifying ‘exercise caution’ because of the weather. With the rain, there is always issues with grip between the gloves and the wheels for wheelchair racers.
“As soon as it is raining, you can’t expect the same results. And you can expect a higher chance of crashes, especially on the downhills where we hit nearly 60km/h here.”
Cassidy has competed in the Peachtree Road Race several times, and won in 2010 in 18:53.  “I know the course, but I had difficult competition in Joshua George, Krige Shabort, Aaron Gordian, Richard Coleman and Gyu Dae Kim who all seem to be in good shape. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but I knew that I would give it hell to the finish.”
Cassidy broke away on the long arduous climb at Cardiac Hill, around the halfway point of the race. “I wasn’t expecting to get away like I did, and I had to ignore the pain and the doubts and focus all my energy into every stroke, as I worked hard up those tough few kilometres in the rain.”
Cassidy’s finish time was 21:26, with Joshua George of the USA coming in second at 21: 41.  Third place was taken by Krige Shabort, in 21:50 also USA.
“I am really happy and really proud of this one. I needed this. It was an excellent winter of training followed by some misfortunate happenings and unfortunate results this spring. After taking some needed time off in May, I am still working hard to get back to where I want to be. But this felt closer to being me again.”
Cassidy’s next big races are at the World Championships in Lyon, France starting July 20th.   
Check out a video of his hard gruelling climb and ‘break’ here: http://www.11alive.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=2525742412001

 Adam Palamar is having the type of season most athletes dream of and Monday evening he did something that many track fans in Canada couldn’t have dreamed of any time soon – break Kevin Sullivan’s 20 year old Canadian Junior Record for 1500m. By crossing the line in 7th place at the Harry Jerome Classic in Vancouver yesterday, Palamar covered 1500m faster than any Canadian junior male ever had, stopping the clock in 3:38.92. Sullivan, considered to be Canada’s greatest ever 1500m runner, had previously set the record of 3:39.11 at the 1992 IAAF World Junior Championships in Seoul. Monday’s time improvement was just one of many that has come the way of the Merivale High School grad this season. Adam, who had been plagued by injuries during his high school days, entered the season with a personal best of 3:51.51 but has managed to chop valuable seconds off on four occasions this year. Palamar, who will be in Ste Therese, Quebec to defend his Canadian Junior title next weekend, is now ranked seventh in the world among juniors according to the IAAF.
 
Palamar was not the only Ottawa Lion success story in Vancouver as both Sultana Frizell and Melissa Bishop claimed victories in their respective events. Frizell took home her first NTL victory of the season with a throw of 71.39m over an international field that included Olympic fifth place finisher Kathrin Klass of Germany. The winning throw was Sultana’s second best of the season and a marked improvement over her 68m throw from two day’s prior at the Edmonton International Track Classic, where she finished second.
 
On the track, Bishop continued to show her strength as Canada’s top female 800m runner as she comfortably grabbed her third straight NTL victory on Monday. Bidding her time near the front of the race through 600m, Bishop made her sprint for home in the final 200m, running away from Karine Belleau-Beliveau of Quebec to win in a season’s best 2:00.67. Bishop’s previous NTL victories had come in Edmonton, two days prior, as well as Toronto in mid June. Up next for both Bishop and Frizell is the NTL finale in Victoria this Friday where they both hope to claim the league trophies in their respective events as well the $4500 prize money that goes with it.
 
Also making news this weekend were a small group of Espoir athletes (under 23 years of age) at the Canada Games Trials in Windsor. In total, four athletes were named to Team Ontario on Monday for the summer event that takes place once every four years. Representing the Lions this in Sherbrooke, Quebec will be Devyani Biswal (100m Hurdles), Devin Biocchi (400m), Mohamed Souleiman (1500m), and Alex Behre (3000m Steeplechase). Each of these athletes qualified by virtue of finishing in the top two in their event this past weekend as well as hitting the Games standard. Both Biocchi and Souleiman were recent finalists at the Canadian Championships in Moncton, while Biswal just missed out on the final with a tenth place finish. The track and field portion of the Canada Summer Games takes place during the second week of the event, August 11-18.

With athletes set to compete on two continents and two provinces, today will be a busy day for the Ottawa Lions family. Kicking the day off is Rachael Burrows, who is set to compete in the Sainsbury’s IPC Grand Prix Final in Birmingham, England. Burrows, fresh off a successful weekend at last week’s Canadian Championships where she defended her T34 100m and 200m titles, will be contesting the 200m as she puts the final touches on her preparation for next month’s IPC World Championships. Lining up beside Rachael will be all three medalists from last year’s Paralympics Games, including British national Hannah Cockroft, last year’s gold medalist. The race goes off at 12:03 pm EST.
Also in attendance in Birmingham will be fellow wheelchair racer Josh Cassidy who will be competing in one of his marquee events, the T54 1500m. Cassidy, who lost his Canadian 1500m title last weekend by the slimmest of margins will be looking to rebound against a quality international field that includes 2012 Paralympic gold medalist David Weird of Great Britain. Josh will be racing at 1:15 pm EST and results from him and Rachael will be available here.
In another grand prix event, hammer thrower Sultana Frizell, 800m runner Melissa Bishop and 100m hurdler Ashlea Maddex will be taking part in the third stop of the 2013 National Track League, the Edmonton International Track Classic. Frizell, who captured her third Canadian championship last Sunday will be up against a strong field Saturday afternoon that includes Olympic finalist Kathrin Klass of Germany and newly minted United States champion Amanda Bingson, who broke Frizell’s North American record of 75.04m last weekend in her victory. On the track in Edmonton, Melissa Bishop will be looking to repeat her victorious performance from the Toronto stop with the hopes of moving one step closer to the NTL overall title and the $4500 that goes with it. Saturday’s 800m field includes a virtually identical field to last week’s national championship final as well as American veteran, Maggie Vessey.
Maddex, who narrowly missed a bronze last weekend in Moncton will be in tough against a quality international field including Olympic finalists Lolo Jones, Jessica Zelinka and Angela Whyte. You can watch Frizell (12:50 pm EST), Bishop (2:35 pm EST) and Maddex (3:00 pm EST) compete live online on Flotrack.
Rounding out the list of weekend competitors are 14 Lions who have headed south to Windsor to compete for a spot on Team Ontario for August’s Canada Summer Games taking place in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Among the top contenders to earn a spot on the provincial team, based on rankings, are 100m hurdler Devyani Biswal, 200m/400m runner Devin Biocchi, 800m runner Mohamed Souleiman, 1500m runner Alex Behre, pole vaulter Zach Kerr and shot putter Ashley Connell. To be guaranteed a provincial team spot, athletes will have win their event at the trials. Live results from Windsor can be found here with competition continuing through Sunday.