(Ottawa, Canada---05 June 2021) Farah Jacques racing in the 100m hurdles at the Ottawa High Performance Weekend, held at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility. Photograph copyright 2021 Sean Burges / Mundo Sport Images

Lions kick off domestic season with Tokyo Qualifier Series event

by linkinbioLocalNational

After nearly 10 months away from competition Lions athletes were thrilled to be back on the track and in the field this past weekend at the Ottawa High Performance Weekend. They were joined by more than 70 other athletes from Ontario, Quebec, and as far away as Alberta, all in search for a mark to get them to the Olympic Trials in Montreal later this month and to the Games in Tokyo later this summer.

In total, 10 Lions competed in the two day event, highlighted by Farah Jacques’ victory in the 100 metre hurdles on Saturday evening. A finalist in the 4×100 metre relay in Rio, Jacques has spent the past three seasons fortifying her hurdling technique in hopes of returning to the Games in Tokyo this summer. She moved closer to that goal with a seasonal best time of 13.56 seconds in Saturday’s heats. Her time of 13.66 in the final was more than half a second faster than second place.

The men’s 400 metre hurdles was the only event to feature a pair of Lions competing – Leewinchell Jean and Saj Alhaddad. While Alhaddad, the defending Canadian silver medalist, held the upper hand heading into the homestretch, Jean produced a surge over the final 100 metres to over take his teammate as well as Royal City TFC’s Matthew MacNeil for second in 54.29. The time was the 2019 Canadian U20 Champion’s best season opener ever. Alhhaddad placed fourth in 54.53.

Sticking with the hurdles, 19 year old David Adeleye produced a time of 15.21 seconds in the 110 metre event in his first go at the international height. The performance ranks Adeleye 10th in Club history among U23’s.

Never one to shy away from a come back, Jason Dunkerley returned to the track Friday night in the 1500 metres with guide Alex Behre. The five-time Paralympic medalist who had stepped away from competitive running in the fall of 2018, returned with a 4:27.24 effort. The performance was just outside Athletics Canada’s minimum entry standard of 4:26.64, but to return to the Games, Dunkerley will likely need to better the AC Top-8 standard of 4:16.20 to be considered for selection.

Lions athletes will be back in action this weekend at the Johnny Loaring Classic in Windsor.

For results and photos from this past weekend’s event, please visit ottawalions.com/results/2021-results.

2021-Nine-Team-Canada-athletes-to-join-Smith

Smith and Makinde receive Game Plan Scholarships

by linkinbioNational

Among the nine Team Canada athletes to be awarded Game Plan Scholarships to build their business skills were two familiar names to the Lions pride. Two time Olympians Oluseyi Smith and Oluwasegun Makinde will be returning to the classroom over the coming months as they further their education at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.

Smith, just one of 12 athletes to represent Canada at the Winter and Summer Olympics, will enroll in the Executive MBA Americas – a 17-month program leading to Master of Business Administration degrees from both Queen’s University and Cornell University. Smith qualified for his first Olympic Games in 2012, representing Canada in the 4×100 metre relay in London. After failing to qualify for the Games in Rio, Smith took his speed and power from the rubber tracks of athletics to the icy tracks of bobsleigh. As a member of Justin Kripps four-man crew, Smith helped push Canada to a sixth place finish at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

A professional engineer, Smith, received his bachelor and masters degrees in electrical engineering from Loughborough University in the United Kingdowm and had been working for AltaLink in Calgary for six years before returning home to Ottawa last spring to work as a distribution engineer for Hydro Ottawa. In addition to his professional activities, Smith also served on the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Board of Directors, serving as Chair of the COC’s Athlete Commission, and is currently a Young Leader with the International Olympic Committee.

Makinde, a long standing member of Canada’s 4×100 metre relay program was part of both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic teams. The 29 year old Makinde will be pursuing his Master of Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Smith School of Business – a 12 month program designed for those who will start, grow, or drive new ventures whether in a start up or inside a corporation. Makinde, who graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing from the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management in 2014, has become an accomplished public speaker alongside his athletic pursuits including speaking at this year’s McMaster University TEDx Talk. In addition to his public speaking duties, Makinde currently hosts two podcasts and volunteers as a member of Athletics Canada’s Athlete Council and the Diversity & Equity Advisory Committee of AthletesCAN.

The Smith School of Business scholarship program is one component of the COC’s Game Plan, Canada’s total athlete wellness program, helping athletes plan for success beyond sport. This new cohort of successful applicants will join the network of over 130 elite Canadian athletes who have been awarded academic scholarships since the program began in 2016