(Ottawa, Canada---16 August 2023) Wendy Alexis competes in the 200m at Ottawa Summer Twilight Series Meet #11. Copyright 2023 Sean Burges / Mundo Sport Images.

Lions take home five gold from Ontario Masters Championship

by MastersProvincial

Just a week following the Canadian Masters Championships, a small but mighty pride of Lions took to the track at York University for the Ontario Masters Championships. The group of five athletes took home a total of seven medals including five gold. 

As she did a week ago in Montreal, Wendy Alexis easily took home the top spot in the women’s 65 and over 60 and 200 metre titles. Alexis’ winning times of 8.92 and 30.67 are the fastest times in the world for any woman in her age category. 

A pair of gold medals came from 76-year-old jumper Stan Seitz.  The veteran of masters athletics cleared a height of 1.15 metres in the M75 high jump before leaping out to 2.15 metres in the long jump. With his two medals, Seitz has now accumulated over 45 provincial and national medals in his masters career.

Gilles Frenette rounded out the list of gold medalists as he took top spot in the M45 Mile steeplechase. While not typically a contested race indoors, Frenette crossed the line in 5 minutes and 54.87 seconds to claim top spot. 

Sam Shi and Mike McInerney rounded out the medal winners for the Lions with silver and bronze medals respectively. Both awards came over 1500 metres, where Shi placed in the M30 event with his 4:33.59 effort and McInerney went 5:16.89 in the M55 event. 

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Alexis nearly sets world masters record

by linkinbioNational

It’s not every day you come out to the track and almost see a World Record set. Well, for the small number of athletes and coaches in attendance at Wednesday night’s Summer Twilight #2 that’s exactly what they got.

For as long as Wendy Alexis has been around a track, she’s been one of the fastest women in the race. With enough medals to fill a closet and her fair share of records, there has been one that has eluded the retired elementary school teacher – a world record. For a brief moment Wednesday night, she thought she had it.

Running the 100 metres in a heat with competitors up to 52 years her junior, Alexis showed she’s still got what it takes, winning in 13.91 seconds. As the time was announced over the loud speaker, there was a veritable eruption of euphoria just beyond the finish line as Alexis reacted to what would have equaled the current world record in the W65 100 metres held by fellow Canadian Karla Del Grande. Unfortunately, for Alexis the wind gauge had registered a positive 3.0 metres per second to nullify any possible record (the acceptable limit is 2.0 m/s).

Wednesday night’s competition was the second Twilight Meet of our COVID shortened season, and the first open to the athletes from outside the Club. Exactly 100 athletes took part across 17 events, as they ventured to Terry Fox from as far away as Guelph to the west and Montreal to the east.

Those who peaked out at the long throws were treated to some impressive performances in both the javelin and hammer throw. Club Sisu’s Jared Skeath was victorious in the men’s hammer throw. The former USports champion hurled the 16 pound ball out to an impressive 60.07 metres – easily eclipsing the longest distance at any Twilight Meet in recent years. Skeath’s club mate Ashley Pryke had a similar performance in the javelin as she took victory based on her first throw of the competition. The University of Memphis graduate’s best throw of 51.97 metres, was well short of her seasonal best 57.38 set back in February, but was the closest anyone has come to Cheryl Coker’s 1990 meet record of 54.07 metres in some time.

Twilight Meet #3 will take place next Wednesday, August 12th at 6:30pm at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility. For more information, please visit ottawalions.com/schedule.