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After handily winning her preliminary heat in the 800m last night in Austin, Texas, Samantha Murphy returned to Mike A. Myers Stadium and did it all over again. Not even a three hour rain delay seemed to throw Murphy off her game as she claimed victory again in her quarterfinal heat with a new personal best time 2:03.88. Sam’s time was also the fastest time laid down on the wet track tonight.
With the NCAA Championships set for two weeks time in Eugene, Oregon, Murphy will be undoubtedly be looking to improve upon both her new personal best and her fourth place finish from March’s indoor championships. Sam will toe the line in the semi-final on Wednesday, June 6 at 7:30pm eastern. The final is scheduled for Friday, June 8 at 8:20pm eastern.
Competing tomorrow at the NCAA Division III Championships, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin is triple jumper Divya Biswal. The sophomore at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY is scheduled to jump at 4:20pm eastern. Biswal, who was a silver medalist at the indoor championships in March, is coming off a seasonal best effort last week at the East Coast Athletic Conference Championships where she bounded out to 12.01m.
Stay tuned to ottawalions.com and @OttawaLionsTFC for updates

The Ottawa Lions are pleased to announce three club members have been nominated by Athletics Canada to represent Canada at the upcoming World University Games (FISU) in Kazan, Russia, July 6 to 17.
 
Headlining the list are 2012 London Olympians Melissa Bishop and Oluwasegun Makinde. This will be Bishop’s first time representing Canada at FISU, after narrowly missing out on qualification for the 2010 Games. This year, the Eganville native has produced a best time 2:01.54 for 800m in winning last Friday’s Ponce Invitational Grand Prix in Puerto Rico. Back in April, she led a Canadian record setting 4x800m team at the Penn Relays. Prior to heading to Russia, Melissa is scheduled to race at the Toronto International Track and Field Games June 11th as well as the Canadian Championships in Moncton, June 20 to 23.
 
For Makinde, this will be his second time attending the FISU Championships as the University of Ottawa student finished fifth in the 200m in 2010. An alternate on last year’s Olympic 4x100m relay team, Makinde will be looking to replicate the performance level he showed two years ago in Shenzhen, China where he recorded three personal bests on his way to the final. The Colonel By grad’s has recorded a best time this year of 20.78 seconds, set two weeks ago in North Carolina.
 
Rounding out the Lions contingent is decathlete Patrick Arbour who has been nominated to his first world championship team. Arbour is having a breakthrough season in the decathlon after opening up with a 500 plus point personal best at a competition in Tucson last month. His early season score of 7593 points currently ranks him tenth all-time in Canada. In preparation for Kazan, Arbour will be representing Canada at next weekend’s Panamerican Combined Events Cup here in Ottawa before heading to Nationals next month.
 
Also named to the Canadian team were two former Lions members, Alicia Brown in the 400m and Tim Nedow in the shot put.

On day 1 on the NCAA West Regional in Austin, Texas the Ottawa Lions were represented by two standout athletes, Adam Palamar in the 1500m and Samantha Murphy in the 800m.
Palamar, a freshman at the University of Tulsa, failed to advance to the NCAA quarterfinals despite producing his second best effort with a time of 3:49.13. The defending Canadian Junior Champion came out on the short end of a tight finish. With the top five advancing to the quarters, Palamar ended up in the dreaded 6th place. His time was just 0.04 seconds off of 5th and 0.09 from 3rd as the top seven runners were separated by less than four tenths.
In the women’s 800m, Samantha Murphy looked in complete control of her heat. Letting her competitors take the lead through the first 400m, Murphy began to create space from the field as she hit the bell. She wouldn’t look back, running to a 10m victory in 2:04.86. The time is a new outdoor best for Illinois junior who finished 4th at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March. Next up for Murphy is the quarterfinals Friday night scheduled for 8pm eastern.

As Lions athletes competed across five states this past weekend, a number of news worthy performances were put forth. Headlining the list was Samantha Murphy’s Big 10 Championship victory in the 800m. Murphy, who is finishing her junior year at Illinois, won the tactical race in 2:06.62.  Next up for the Perth native is the NCAA preliminary championships taking place in Austin, Texas, May 23-25th, where she will need to finish among the top 12 competitors to qualify for the NCAA finals in early June. 
 
The other Lion runner to pick up a conference medal over the weekend was 1500m runner, Adam Palamar. The freshman at the University of Tulsa dropped more than five seconds off his personal best, running 3:45.41 to capture Conference USA silver at Rice University in Houston. The performance also meets the qualification standard for this summer’s Panamerican Junior Championships set for late August in Medellin, Colombia.
 
In North Carolina, a small group of sprinters rounded out  a two-week tour of the eastern United States that included six meets in fourteen days. Sprint hurdler Devyani Biswal continued the great start to her season with another two personal best performances, one Friday night in Raleigh (14.16) followed by a 14.06 clocking in Durham on Sunday. The time now moves Biswal into a tie for number eight on the club’s all-time performance list. Already in this short season, Devyani has dropped nearly a second off her PB.
 
Other strong performances in North Carolina came from Oluwasegun Makinde who showed he’s ready to make a push for Canada’s World Championship team this summer with winning performances in the 200m of 20.87 in Durham and 20.78 in Raleigh. Both times also exceed the Athletics Canada’s standards for qualification to the World University Games (FISU) in Kazan, Russia in July. Makinde was a fifth place finisher at the event in 2011. Also dipping under a FISU standard was 400m sprinter Michael Robertson who completed one lap in 46.75 seconds on Friday night in Raleigh.
 
The final contingent of athletes was competing at the Virginia Challenge in Charlottesville. The combined event athletes kicked the competition off with Michele Krech posting personal best performances in the long jump and 800m on her way to posting a second best ever score of 4832 points in the heptathlon. Training partner Mark Chenery was less fortunate as an ankle injury forced him to withdraw from the competition midway through day two.
 
In the individual events, Mohammed Souleiman hit a bit of a breakthrough in the 1500m as he finally cracked the 3:50 mark, with a 3:48.90 clocking. The time surpassed his previous best by nearly four and a half seconds. In the women’s race, CIS rookie of the year, Emma Galbraith, ran 4:28.36, her third best ever performance at the distance. Finally, javelin thrower Brandon Heroux unleashed the javelin out to 69.18m. It was an impressive performance for Heroux who has spent the past eight months working on Wall Street as an analyst for J.P. Morgan and had not touched a javelin since competing at last year’s NACAC U23 Championship.

It was a successful night on the track in Grand Cayman last night for two of Ottawa’s elite athletes. For 800m runner Melissa Bishop and 100m hurdler Ashlea Maddex, the weather sure was warm with temperatures above 30 degrees and feeling like 41 Celsius with the humidex.
 
Maddex, kicked things off with a new personal best performance in the 100m hurdles as she crossed the line in 13.34 seconds. The Rockland native was positive about the event and the time saying, “ In this one meet alone, I’ve realized the benefit of being calm and collected yet aggressive enough to do what I needed to do.” This was the second straight personal best performance by Maddex, who had run 13.40 seconds less than two weeks ago at Cornell University.
 
The women’s 800m must have felt a little like running at home in late summer for Olympian Melissa Bishop with the humidex and two other compatriots featured in the field of four runners. Nonetheless, took the lead through 400m and didn’t let go in the next lap crossing the line first in 2:02.83. Following her race, Bishop posted on her twitter feed, “I love competing here. Lots to look forward to this season, but I still to put in some work.” The Eganville native will face her next test on May 18th as she competes at the Ponce Invitational in Puerto Rico.

Ottawa – Just one month remains until some of the best athletes in the Americas descend on the nation’s capital to do battle over two days of competition at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility at Mooney’s Bay. On June 1st and 2nd, the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club will play host to the Panamerican Combined Events Cup, an event which aims to bring together the best decathletes and heptathletes among the Panamerican nations.
With at least 13 countries expected to participate in the event this year’s field is already proving to be strong with teams from Cuba, Brazil and the United States already having confirmed their attendance. Among the confirmed attendees on the men’s side are the defending champion Jose Angel Mendieta and his compatriot Yordani Garcia. Garcia, who holds a personal best of 8496 pts, has been a fixture on the international stage for many years, having a competed at every major international event since the 2005 World Youth Championships where he captured gold. Most recently Garcia finished 14th at the Olympic Games in London.
It is also expected that Ottawa decathlete Patrick Arbour, who moved into tenth on Canada’s all-time list last month, will be chosen to wear the red and white. This would be Arbour’s second consecutive appearance at the Panamerican Cup. At last year’s event, Arbour finished in fifth place behind training partner Mark Chenery. Together the pair captured the team title for Canada over the United States and Mexico. Chenery could be named to team Canada as well provided he can prove fitness at a competition next weekend in Virginia.
Leading the women’s field is defending Yorgelis Rodriguez of Cuba. Following her victory in Ottawa last season, Rodriguez went on to capture the World Junior title in Barcelona. “I have sweet memories from Canada last year. It was my first international win and a great boost in my preparation for the Junior Worlds. I look forward to competing again in Ottawa in June,” said Rodriguez. Also headlining the women’s field will be Rodriguez’s teammate, Yusleidys Mendieta, who is the defending World Youth champion.
With no admission fee for the Panamerican Cup, organizers encourage the public and track enthusiasts to make their way to Mooney’s Bay on June 1st at 10am to cheer on these great athletes. Stay tuned to ottawalions.com for more information on the event as it becomes available.

It was a successful weekend for the Ottawa Lions with a five athletes representing Canada at the historical Penn Relays on Saturday in Philadelphia while a larger group participated in the Big Red Invite in Ithaca, New York on Sunday.
Headlining the performances from the weekend was Melissa Bishop who led Canada to a fifth place finish in the “USA vs The World” women’s 4x800m event at the Penn Relays in Canadian record time of 8:14.85. Bishop, who posted the team’s fastest split of 2:02.2, ran lead off for Team Canada as they shaved nearly 14 seconds off the previous record.
On the men’s 4x400m team, Ottawa Lions runners comprised half the team with Devin Biocchi and Gordon Frenke running the final two legs. The Canadian quartet crossed the line in 3:07.99 to finish 8th. The time was the fastest by a Canadian team since the 2011 Panamerican Games. Rounding out the Lions contingent in Philadelphia was Michael Robertson who ran as part of the Canadian distance medley relay team which finished 7th in a time 9:29.15. Robertson completed is 400m leg in 46.0 seconds.
In Ithaca, two new all-time top 10 performances headlined the list of achievements. Sprint hurdler Ashlea Maddex set a new personal best of 13.40 seconds on her way to capturing victory in the 100m hurdles as she improved on her second place ranking in club history. The time also broke her own facility record set back in 2011. The other top ten performance came from discus thrower Katie Klatt who unleashed a sizeable personal best throw to move up to tenth in the all-time club rankings with a throw of 40.59m.
Other notable performances from Cornell came from hurdlers Sekou Kaba and Devyani Biswal. Kaba, last year’s national silver medalist, posted a swift time of 14.02 seconds in the 110m hurdles to finish second behind former NCAA champion Jarrett Eaton. Kaba’s time currently ranks him third in Canada. For Biswal, her time of 14.32 seconds removed more than two tenth’s of a second from her previous personal best and now ranks her ninth in Canada.
A small contingent of Lions athletes will be competing Wednesday night at the Liberty Twilight Qualifier on Wednesday night in Lynchburg, Virginia. Live results will be available at here.

As a result of the new entry process required by the City of Ottawa at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility, all club members are asked to print and fill out the waiver form below before arriving at Terry Fox for their first practice. By filling out the waiver, you will help speed up the Terry Fox registration process on your first visit, and save yourself valuable time.
Please note, all members under 18 years of age are REQUIRED to have their form signed by a parent.
Terry Fox Waiver Form

Walnut, California seems to be a special place for hammer thrower Sultana Frizell. At Saturday’s Mt Sac Relays, the former figure skater spun four times before hurling the hammer out to 71.57m, which was good enough for the victory over a field that included both the American and British record holders. Frizell’s distance was also just seven centimeters off her own meet record of 71.64m set in 2009. On Facebook, the thrower remarked “Always a pleasure competing at the Sac. Onto the next meet and hopefully building towards better things!”
Also competing at Mt Sac was Frizell’s former roommate and Olympic teammate, Melissa Bishop, who produced her fastest ever opener over 800m, 2:02.62. For the second year in a row, the Eganville native decided to open her season up in Walnut. Her previous best opener was 2:03.91 last season. Bishop will compete next in the Cayman Islands on May 8^th.
In Poughkeepsie, New York horizontal jumper Divya Biswal continued to dominate Liberty League competition as a member of the St. Lawrence University Saints. The indoor All-American swept the long and triple jump competitions at the conference championships on the Vassar College campus. On the strength of her victories, the Saints sophomore captured the Liberty League Field Event MVP, repeating her indoor performance. Biswal, also a former figure skater, will compete next at the historic Penn Relays taking place this coming weekend in Philadelphia.
Rounding out North American competition, the trio of Oluwasegun Makinde, Michael Robertson and Samantha Murphy were all in action at the LSU Alumni Gold meet in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Makinde produced a new personal best in the 110m hurdles with a clocking of 14.59 seconds before finishing the 200m in 21.17 seconds and running the second leg on Team Canada’s 39.18 second 4x100m effort. Robertson produced a seasonal best 47.45 second run in the 400m, while Murphy finished fifth in a talented 800m field, crossing the line in 2:06.09.
At the London Marathon, world record holder Josh Cassidy made headlines following his collision with 2012 Olympic women’s champion, Tiki Gelana. Cassidy would recommence racing, later pulling out of the race before reaching the mid way mark. London was the second half of a grueling double for Cassidy as he had finished ninth in the Boston Marathon just six days prior.
 
 

Membership to the Terry Fox Facility is now FREE to all members of the Ottawa Lions – but to be FREE all members must be in possession of a City Facility photo ID card.  These cards will all have a “bar code” expiration date for the lengths of your programs.  All Cards are to be tapped on the reader for entry.   Example: Junior Spring Program Members – will have a valid card until June 1 when it expires.  Keep your card and it can be “recharged” when you join for the next program. All Annual Members will have a card that expires on August 31^st. Everyone will go through a renewal process in the Fall to reinstate your card’s validity.
Legitimate Club Members will be required to have and use facility photo cards on a regular basis.  Some of you will be in the City system from your memberships of last year.   All new Club members and returning Club Members will be required to get and use a City Facility / Program PHOTO ID CARD.  All this will be conducted at the front desk of Terry Fox by City Staff.  All Coaches will require CARDS.
Questions – with Answers:

• How do I get my card?  – You must go to the front desk of Terry Fox and get your photo taken and have the card issued and sign a waiver.   If you are a legitimate member of the Club your name will be in their data base.
• What if my name is not in their data base?  If you are a legitimate member and a mistake has been made you will be sent to see our staff for correction.  If you are not a valid member, you will be sent to see our staff to fill out forms and make payments so that we can correct your card situation for Terry Fox access.
• What if members forget to bring their cards?  A possible charge for Daily User Fee that is $4.25.  We are seeing if we can make it a simple $2 to wake our members up to the “need to carry a card” situation.
• What happens when I swipe / tap my card?  Your PHOTO will pop up on the administrative computer for staff to see.  Your card will tell staff that you are a current member of the Lions in good standing or it will tell them that your program / membership has expired.
• Is anyone above the law of having a CARD?  NO … abide by the rules and respect the efforts being made to improve our situation at Terry Fox.  If you do not have a card – expect to pay or be refused.  Coaches – please comply and support this situation.

Attention: Distance coaches – sending your runners outside the facility without their cards for re-entry – a process has yet to be addressed

• What if I lose my card?   You will need to get a new one and pay a re-issuing fee.  No one else can use it because of the photo that displays on the staff computers for validation.