GLASGOW — Eighteen years after he won bronze at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India, Oluwasegun Makinde stood on a Commonwealth podium again. This time he had not run his own race.
Makinde, a 35-year-old sprinter and two-time Olympian, served as guide runner for visually impaired sprinter George Quarcoo in the men’s 100-metre T11/T12 final, the pair crossing in 11.06 seconds for third place. It was the only medal among four Ottawa Lions athletes at the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The result closed a long Commonwealth arc for Makinde, who was twice named to Canadian teams as a sprinter — Glasgow in 2014 and the Gold Coast in 2018 — before returning to the same Scottish city in a new role. He and Quarcoo have been running together for just over a year.
“That was a dream come true,” said Quarcoo, who runs for Eclipse Track and Field and began losing his vision at age nine. “Exactly eight years ago is where it started, at the Commonwealth Games in Australia. We came here with one mission — to execute and handle business, and that’s exactly what we did.”
“It’s incredible,” Makinde said of the collective bronze medal effort. “It’s a bit of redemption from 2018 [where Quaracoo did not advance to the final]. I’m happy to help him achieve his goals. It has been many years in the making.”
Making her first global final, Lauren Gale capped a remarkable summer with a seventh-place finish in the women’s 400m, crossing the line in 52.01 seconds as wind and cool temperatures created conditions more reminiscent of a fall cross country meet than the first day of August.
For the two-time Olympian, the result brought a strong close to a summer that has already included her first victories at both the Pan American Championships and Canadian Championships, adding another major international final to an increasingly impressive résumé.
Despite the challenging conditions, Gale remained focused on the task at hand.
“It’s always exciting to be in a final. Very happy to be here,” Gale said. “It’s a little cold, a little windy, but we’re all running in the same conditions, and I just had to execute my race.”
Maëliss Trapeau battled through injury to reach the semifinals of the women’s 800m, finishing eighth in her semifinal section in 2:02.42 after advancing from the opening round in 2:03.89.
Trapeau’s path to the start line was far from straightforward. In a social media post following her semifinal, the 26-year-old revealed that a calf strain and significant Achilles tendinitis in the week leading into the Games had disrupted her preparation and left her uncertain whether she would be able to compete.
“Ten days ago, I wasn’t even sure I would make it to the start line,” Trapeau wrote, crediting the Canadian medical team for helping her get to the track. “Not the performance I was aiming for, but a race I’m proud to have been able to run given the circumstances.”
David Moulongou rounded out the Lions’ individual competition with a fifth-place finish in his men’s 400m hurdles semifinal, running 51.00 seconds.
The 23-year-old University of Ottawa student and reigning Canadian champion has enjoyed a breakthrough season, breaking a 36-year-old Lions club record in the spring before lowering his personal best to 49.92 at the Royal City Inferno in Guelph, Ont. The performance moved him to 10th on the Canadian all-time list.
“It was my first major international competition,” Moulongou said. “I would’ve hoped to do a lot better, but this was a very valiant and gutsy race.”
