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They say records are made to be broken. You just don’t always expect them to be broken by teammates. Such was the case for Sharelle Samuel over the weekend as the Canadian U20 4×400 metre relay record she had held for a year was bested at the Pan American U20 Championships by club mate Lauren Gale and her Canadian teammates.
While Samuel had run anchor when the previous standard was set at last summer’s IAAF World U20 Championships, it was Gale kick starting things Sunday in the lead off role. According to Team Canada coach Derrick Johnston, Gale sped through the field in an impressive 52.75 seconds before passing the baton to Aurora Wynda – the only hold over from the 2018 team.
In the end, Team Canada anchor Catherine Leger closed out the event with a blistering 51.81 second final lap as the Canadian women set a new standard for the event of three minutes and 30.68 seconds. The mark bested the previous record by one and a quarter seconds.
Before the relay, Gale was also a finalist in the open 400 metres. The Colorado State University student finished seventh overall with a time of 54.67 seconds. Gale has at least one more race to go in this long season as she will be looking for her first Canadian U20 gold at 400 metres this weekend in Montreal.
Also making the finals in San Jose, Costa Rica this weekend was Helena Jovic. The recent John McRae graduate finished eighth overall in the 400 metres hurdles Sunday with a time of 61.83 seconds. Jovic will also return to action this weekend at the Canadian Championships where she will be in a strong battle for gold with Canadian teammate Brooke Overholt who was seventh in Sunday’s final.
Rounding out the Lions contingent competing in Costa Rica was Leewinchell Jean who finished 11th overall in the men’s 400m hurdles in a time of 53.75 seconds.

Since it’s beginnings 39 years ago, 48 Ottawa Lions members have represented Canada at the Pan American Under 20 Championships. As the 20th edition of the Championship is set to kick off Friday morning at the Estadio Nacional in San José, Costa Rica three more names will be added to the list.
Donning the red and white this weekend will be Lauren Gale, Helena Jovic and Leewinchel Jean. Gale, a member of last year’s World U20 team, is the veteran while Jovic and Jean are Team Canada rookies.
Gale will be contesting the 400 metres which gets underway with two semi-finals Friday afternoon at 1:00pm Eastern. The All-American from Colorado State University enters the competition as the fifth seed based on her time of 52.68 seconds from the Mountain West Outdoor Conference Championships. Should Gale advance, the final is scheduled for later that day at 7:25pm Eastern.
Both Jovic and Jean will wait till Saturday evening to see action as they both compete in the 400 metre hurdle semi-finals. The duo earned their place in Costa Rica based on excellent runs at last month’s OFSAA Championships where each set a new personal best en route to gold.
Jovic will run first at 8:10pm Eastern where her best time of 59.97 seconds has her seeded in eighth among the 13 member field. Coming off the second best run of her life at last weekend’s Ontario U20 Championships, Jovic will undoubtedly be gunning for a place in Sunday’s final – where anything can happen.
The men’s semi-final will directly follow the women and Jean will find himself in the most talented race of his young career. Entering with a best of 52.95 seconds from the OFSAA Championships, the future Windsor Lancer is seeded 12th in the 15 man field.
The Championships will conclude Sunday afternoon with the 4×400 metre relays where all three Lions figure to be in a position to run the baton around Estadio Nacional.
The Championship schedule and results can be found here.

This past weekend was another step in the right direction for our U16 and U18 athletes as they continue the march towards next month’s Legion National Youth Track and Field Championships in Cape Breton. A team of 32 athletes descended on Quebec City to take part in the Quebec U14/U16/U18 Championships. In total, the Pride brought home 12 medals, including five gold.
A driving force behind the medal haul was the strength of the relay teams, with more than a third of the medals coming from this domain. In particular was the strong showing in both U18 4x400m relays where the Lions swept the top two podium spot for both the boys and girls. On the girls side, the team of Doyin Ogunremi, Jalena Marelic, Kiara Laberge, and Angelica Stefani took top spot in 4:26.11 while the quartet of Thomas Kukla-Colby, Xavier Carty, Liam Lemery and Kyle Porter captured the boys side in 3:44.69.
Also joining in the relay success were the U18 girls team of Vanessa Lu Langley, Tatiana Pender, Jalena Marelic and Kiara Laberge who picked up silver in the 4x100m event with a time of 53.23. Their results were matched by the U16 boys 4x100m team of Sam Wheeler, Cormick Holland, Nathaniel McNeil and Zach Jeggo as the boys got the stick around the track in 51.23 seconds for silver.
Individually, Thomas Kukla-Colby had a strong showing with gold in the U16 300m (37.93) and bronze in the 200m hurdles (27.89) to go along with his relay victory. Zachary Meredith was also victorious, claiming gold in the U16 800m in a time of 2:03.36.
Rounding out the medal winners, Doyin Ogunremi picked up her second gold of the championship by taking the U18 200m title in a personal best time of 25.87 seconds while Xavier Carty took bronze in the U18 400m hurdles in 59.18 seconds.

Some of the final preparations for next weekend’s Canadian Championships were being put into action this past weekend in North York where the Lions athletes battled it out against the rest of the province for Ontario bragging rights. In total, the Pride brought home 18 medals including three gold from the U20 and Open Championship.
The action got off to a good start Friday evening when Rebecca Brennan captured silver in the open women’s 5000m – her first ever medal at the Athletics Ontario Championships. Similar to her race a few weeks back in Quebec City, Brennan again smashed her personal best in the even – taking more than ten seconds off her previous standard.
The first gold came from junior runner Will Cox who took the U20 3000m steeplechase in a personal best nine minutes and 38.80 seconds. The margin of victory for the recent Colonel By grad was a significant eight seconds.
Next to grab gold was Stephen Evans in his marquee event – the 800m. The reigning USport 600m champion was able to narrowly edge out former Canadian medalist Corey Bellemore with a time of 1:49.82 to 1:49.86. The summer of 2019 has been a break out season for Evans as he has dropped his personal best below 1:49 in addition to winning the Speed River Inferno and placing as the top Canadian at the Harry Jerome Classic.
Rounding out the Championship with the 4×400 metre relay, the team of Sebastian Saville, Mouhcine Aitouneijar, Vincent Moritz and Andre Alie-Lamarche were victorious in a time of three minutes and 23.69 seconds.
While they didn’t manage to capture gold, the Lions crew of intermediate hurdlers had a very successful weekend picking up one medal in each of the four categories. Coming off a club and Twilight series record over the 300 metre hurdles last Wednesday, Saj Alhaddad captured provincial silver Sunday in the 400 metre hurdle event. Alhaddad’s time of 51.47 was the second fastest of his career. His training partner Quinn Lyness was able to snag U20 bronze in 56.04 seconds, just a hundredth off his lifetime best.
On the women’s side another pair of training partners were able to medal. Helena Jovic posted the second fastest time of her career, running 60.84 seconds to win the U20 women’s 400 metre hurdles. Jovic will be heading to Costa Rica this week to represent Canada at the U20 Pan Am Championships. In the open category, training partner Mary Ollier continued to improve, as she set a new personal best of 61.00 to capture bronze. This was Ollier’s third personal best of the season in the event.
Other medal winners from the weekend included:
Oluwasegun Makinde – Open Men’s 110m Silver
Joe Fast – U20 Men’ s 1500m Silver
Shea McHale, Tyrece Johnson, Quinn Lyness, Joe Fast – U20 Men’s 4x100m Silver
Madison McLean – U20 Women’s Javelin Silver
Tom Nedow – Open Men’s Discus Silver
Divya Biswal – Open Women’s Triple Jump Silver
Oluwasegun Makinde – Open Men’s 200m Silver
Wariso Dullo – U20 Men’s Javelin Bronze
Shea McHale, Quinn Lyness, Joe Fast, Adrian Fournier – U20 Men’s 4x400m Bronze

When the Canadian Masters Championships concluded last weekend in Ste. Therese, Quebec, our team of Lions emerged with a pocketful of gold – 11 gold medals to be exact. The winnings were part of an overall haul of 18 medals from the championships including five silver and two bronze.
Leading the medal haul was Joe Paialunga, who amassed four medals including two gold over during the championship. Paialunga was golden in both the long jump (4.29m) and javelin (29.35m). On the sprint straightaways, the 60 year old was twice defeated by Grantley Blenman of the Gazelles track club in Toronto, but did manage to hold on to silver.
Veteran Stan Seitz was also able to secure two gold medals taking both of the vertical jumps in the M70 category. Seitz put forward seasonal best performances in both the high jump (1.30m) and pole vault (2.65m). He topped that off with a bronze in the long jump.
Other double gold medalists included sprinters Jennifer Morris and Wendy Alexis. Morris completed the sprint double in the W45 category – taking the 100m (14.52) and 200m (28.48). Alexis, competing in the W60 category, had similar victories in the 100m (14.49) and 200m (29.66).
Other medalists from Ste. Therese include:
Hazel Harding – Bronze W45 200m
Hazel Harding – Silver W45 400m
Liz Maguire – Gold W50 1500M
Danette Nearing-Guibord – Silver W55 100m
Danette Nearing-Guibord – Gold W55 200m|
Lawrence Williams – Silver M45 200m
Robert Muir – Gold M50 pentathlon

With the athletics portion of the 30th Universiade set to wrap up Saturday at the Stadio San Paola in Napoli, Italy it was a successful weekend for two Lions athletes. Representing the pride were Farah Abdulkarim in the men’s 10,000m and Keira Christie-Galloway in the women’s 100m hurdles.
Abdulkarim, who was running in just his second career 10,000m event, ran like a seasoned veteran, managing the ebbs and flows of international championship distance running with apparent ease. The University of Mississippi student had spent the majority of Tuesday’s race among the leaders before three of the five runners in the lead pack were able to break away with a kilometre to go.
When the pack broke apart, Abdulkarim was unable to respond as the group’s oscillating pace appeared to take the kick out of his legs. He would cross the line fifth in 29 minutes and 43.51 seconds.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Christie-Galloway was a favourite to make Thursday’s final based on a seasonal best of 13.10 seconds. Unfortunately, for the 19 year old she was unable to regain the form that led to a Big 12 Outdoor Championship or Second Team All-American status at the NCAA Championship. Competing in her 28th race since January, the Iowa State University student finished fifth in her semi-final with a time of 13.46 seconds.
Christie-Galloway’s performance was bested by just a few thousandths of a second by Slovakia’s Stanislava Lajcakova in the second semi-fianl and would settle for a ninth place overall finish. However, for Christie-Galloway the summer of international track will continue as she prepares to don the red and white this August at the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.
26 races

While some people celebrated Canada Day down on Parliament Hill or in their local community with friends and neighbours, a small pride of Lions gathered in Kanata to toe the line at the Canada Day Road Races. The Run Ottawa event featured races of 1, 5 and 10 kilometres, the later of which was swept by Lion athletes.
Much like they did two weeks ago at the Lululemon 10K in Toronto, the pair of Jean Marie Vianney-Uwajeneza and Salome Nyirarukundo both came away with victories even if their margins of victory were a little narrower. Uwajeneza took the men’s title in 30 minutes and 48.8 seconds. He narrowly edged out Lion Alum, Yves Sikubawbo who finished two tenths behind for silver.
Nic Roberts, coming off a 5000m PB on the track the previous weekend rounded out the medal podium for the men as he crossed the line in 32 minutes and 45.6 seconds.
The women’s side saw Salome Nyirarukundo bring her road race victories to six so far in 2019 as she took top spot. Much like her compatriot Uwajeneza, the 2016 Olympian was in a fierce battle for the victory, narrowly edging out the competition by two tenths of a second to win in 36 minutes and 19.3 seconds.
Over 5 kilometres, the top Lion was Jay Sneddon who placed fourth in the men’s event. Sneddon’s time of 16 minutes and 38.8 seconds left him just 11.5 seconds off the podium.
Also on Monday, Joe Fast posted a new lifetime best over 1500 metres enroute to a fifth place finish at the Hamilton Canada Day Twilight. The Ridgmont High School student ran a scorching 3 minutes and 52.45 seconds, taking nearly three seconds off his best set two weeks prior at the 1500m Night in London. Monday’s time also moves Fast into number one in the national rankings for U18 boys.

Just under a year ago Divya Biswal left her New York City job in finance and headed west with fiancé Justin Wood to live and train full-time in La Verne, California. The change in lifestyle and training environment has paid huge dividends already in this early season as she once again extended her Club Record in the triple jump this weekend, landing out at 13. 44 metres. Her previous mark of 13.38 metres was set April 20.
After a first round foul for Biswal, she found her place on the runway on the second attempt, bounding out to her new lifetime best. The mark had her in the gold medal position until round five when London’s Caroline Ehrhardt jumped ahead with her jump of 13.60 metres. Biswal’s series of jumps bodes well as she also had marks of 13.29 and 13.35 metres in the final two rounds.
Biswal followed up her triple jump performance with a commanding victory in the long jump. The St. Lawrence University graduate only used three of her six allotted jumps, but that was more than enough as a leap of 6.33 metres in round two was good enough to win by more than a foot. Unfortunately, for Biswal, the leap was aided by a 2.8 metres per second tailwind, so it will not count for record purposes despite being the longest of her career.
On her Instagram account, Biswal was appreciative of the results, saying, “What a difference a few days and getting to be with your best friend (twin Devyani) makes. Very happy to have come away from today with a pb in TJ (13.44m) and a wind aided pb in LJ (6.33m).”
Elsewhere this weekend, a small group of athletes traveled east to Quebec City for the Soirée Rouge et Or highlighted by some excellent performances from our 5000 metre runners. In fact the entire quartet of Rebecca Brennan, Adrian Fournier, Andre Alie-Lamarche, and Nic Roberts all recorded new lifetime bests. Brennan made the largest improvement, finishing eighth in 17 minutes and 39.54 seconds – a staggering 70 seconds below her previous mark. Fournier was fifth in the junior men’s race, shedding five seconds from his previous best with a time of 15:34.49. In the senior men’s contest, Alie-Lamarche cut 38 seconds off his personal best to finish seventh (14:39.24) while Roberts was 16th in 15:11.92 – 40 seconds faster than his previous best.
Over 800m, Charlotte Gardner and Sebastian Saville picked up a pair of silver medals. Gardner was nipping at the heals of Karine Belleau-Béliveau, crossing the line in 2 minutes and 7.75 seconds, just three tenths behind the former World Championship competitor. Similarly, Saville finished in 1 minute and 51.73 seconds, 25 hundredths behind Vincent Dugay of Laval.
Rounding things things out, pole vaulters Annabelle Gagne and Claudine Nafaa took gold and silver with jumps of 3.05 and 2.90 metres respectively.

While newcomers to Canada, the pair of Salome Nyirarukundo and Jean Marie Viamey Uwajeneza have been quick to make an impression on the road running scene. The duo, originally from Rwanda, continue their string of strong running as they swept the top spots for both women and men at last weekend’s Lululemon 10k in Toronto.
Nyirarukundo, a 2016 Oympian over 10,000m, bested the field by more than 28 seconds as she crossed the line to win in a time of 34 minutes and 0.2 seconds. Guelph’s Rachel Hannah took silver in 34:28.6. The pair had run close together through the first five kilometres before Nyirarukundo pulled away in the second half of the race. Saturday’s victory was just the latest in a string of strong results this spring. The Rwandan record holder at every distance from the 5,000m up to the marathon has been victorious in five of her seven road races so far this year. The only blemishes being a second place finish at a 5km event in Lac Beauport, QC at the end of April and her fourth place finish in the Ottawa Marathon where she clocked a speedy 2 hours, 30 minutes and 44 seconds.
Uwajeneza, who has also had a strong start to the season, was the only individual in the field to break the 30 minute barrier, winning in 29 minutes and 57.4 seconds. Among the notable names finishing behind Uwajeneza was Canadian marathon record holder, Cam Levins who was fifth in 30:19.9. Saturday’s victory was the 30 year old’s third victory of the young season with previous wins coming at the Lévis and St. Laurent 10km races in Quebec.