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Fast Times, Big Wins: Ottawa Lions Dominate Weekend Road Races

by linkinbioLocal

A busy weekend on the roads produced a number of top performances for Lions athletes from Longueuil to Toronto and in between.

At the Demi-Marathon de Longueuil 10km, Salome Nyirarukundo continued her success on the road, claiming victory in the women’s race. The 26-year-old crossed the line in a swift 33:55, a new personal best since joining the club. This performance ranks Nyirarukundo third all-time in the 10km road race for the Lions, behind only Sarah Dillabaugh and Nathalie Coté. 

Nyirarukundo later took to Instagram to thank those who have supported her journey, saying, “My coaches Ray, Helen, Richard, Felix, my team, group, without good people around me, I couldn’t make this happen.”

On the men’s side, Ottawa’s André Alie-Lamarche put in a breakthrough performance, finishing 7th in the competitive field with a time of 30:30. His time improved upon his previous best by nearly 90 seconds, moving him from 25th to 14th on the Lions’ all-time 10km rankings.

Meanwhile, at the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Joshua Cassidy continued his winning ways. Competing in the wheelchair division, the veteran racer took home top honours, finishing the race in 1:38:09. Reflecting on his busy marathon schedule, Cassidy shared on Instagram, “Fourth marathon in five weeks, one more to go! Always great to be on the Toronto streets and seeing familiar faces. Only a small field here, but great to have a hard training while promoting the sport, bringing awareness to the event and drawing future participation.”

In the half-marathon, Terry Rushworth delivered a solid performance, finishing 67th overall in a time of 1:18:15. The 50-year-old now ranks ninth in Club history. 

Locally, at the 9 Run Run event in Stittsville, Ken Lorbetskie emerged victorious in the 10km race, completing the straight back and forth course in 34:28. In the 5km race, Adriano Padoin-Castillo put in a strong effort to take the win, crossing the line in 17:12.

(Langley, Canada---27 July 2023) Kevin Robertson competing on day one of the Canadian Track and Field Championships at the Macleod Athletic Park Stadium. Copyright 2023 Miles Ryan Rowat/ Mundo Sport Images. If posting to social media please tag @mundosportimages

Robertson moves to second on all-time steeplechase list

by Clublinkinbio

After a 2023 season which saw steeplechaser Kevin Robertson qualify for his first NCAA Championship, win a bronze medal at the Canadian Championships, and take top spot at the NACAC U23 Championships you may be left wondering what could he have in store for an encore. Friday night in Charlottesville, VA we got a pretty good glimpse and the future is bright. 

Opening his season at the Virginia Grand Prix, Robertson easily took top spot in his heat of the 3000 metre steeplechase in a personal best time of 8 minutes and 33.88 seconds. The Syracuse University student won by more than 11 seconds over Princeton’s Jackson Shorten. Robertson placed eighth overall.

In addition to a new lifetime best for Robertson, his performance Friday evening had him leap frog Joshua Karaja into second place on the Club’s all-time list. Alain Boucher set the current Club standard of 8:33.65 at the Commonwealth Track and Field Challenge in Sydney in 1990.

In Louisiana with the national team in preparation for the upcoming World Athletics Relay Championships, Lauren Gale took home a pair of fourth place finishes at the LSU Alumni Gold Meet. Gale  improved her seasonal best over 200 metres to 23.30 seconds in Baton Rouge – moving into third spot on the early season national rankings. Over 400 metres, Gale finished the one lap race in 52.42 seconds, two hundredths off her season’s best. . 

On the road, Josh Cassidy completed his second marathon in the span of a week rolling to an eighth place finish in the wheelchair section of the London Marathon Sunday morning. Following his fifth place finish in Boston on Monday, Cassidy finished the 26.2 mile course in a time of 1:35.40 – a scant seven seconds off another fifth place finish. 

Despite being on the other side of the country, there were a number of familiar faces on the start line of this year’s Vancouver Sun Run 10km. First across the finish line among the small group was Kyle Porter, who placed 32nd overall with a 31:58 clocking. Behind Porter were a pair of masters runners, Jay Sneddon and Sam Shi, who finished 25th and 42nd respectively in the men’s 30-34 age category. Jay was clocked in 34 minutes and 27 seconds, while Sam set a new lifetime best of 36 minutes and 16 seconds. 

For updated Club rankings, click here.

(Ottawa, Canada---10 August 2022) Adriano Padoin-Castillo competing in the 10,000m at Ottawa Summer Twilight Series meet #12. 2022 Copyright Photograph Sean Burges / Mundo Sport Images.

Padoin-Castillo tops podium at Great Big Cookie Run

by linkinbioLocal

While the focus for many Lions runners may have been on cross country championships over the past week, a little five kilometre road race along the Rideau Canal enticed a few runners to lace up their shoes Saturday. The free cookies at the finish line of Run Ottawa’s Great Big Cookie run may have also helped.

The top of the podium had some very familiar names with Adriano Padoin-Castillo taking top spot in the men’s race with a personal best time of 16 minutes and 16.0 seconds. Clearly the Immaculata student still had some juice in the legs following Thursday’s run at the NCSSAA Cross Country Championships.

Also cracking the top-10 were Jay Sneddon and Gavin Westbrook who placed sixth and seventh respectively. Sneddon edged out Westbrook by just two seconds, finishing in 16 minutes and 47.0 seconds. Another notable finish goes to Jason Dunkerley and guide runner Alex Berhe who finished 14th and 15th with equal times of 17:25.

On the women’s side, it was former Lion and current CTV Ottawa journalist Leah Larocque taking top spot in 18 minutes and 7.0 seconds. She was followed by 15-year old Lion Grace Streek in second with a time of 18:21.0. It was the second race in three days for Streek as the grade 10 student had finished third in the junior girls cross country race at the City Championship to earn a spot at this week’s OFSAA Championship.

Full results from the Great Big Cookie Run can be found on Sport Stats. 

OTTAWA, ON -- 05 July 2018: Josh Cassidy racing in the para wheelchair 1500m at the 2018 Athletics Canada National Track and Field Championships held at the Terry Fox Athletics Facility in Ottawa, Canada. (Photo by Sean Burges / Mundo Sport Images).

Cassidy fourth at New York City Marathon

by InternationallinkinbioLocal

For Josh Cassidy, competing in last Saturday’s New York City Marathon just 27 days after placing fifth at the Boston Marathon would normally not be a newsworthy fact. He is after all, a man has regularly raced Boston on a Monday in April, hopped a plane and contested the London Marathon just six days later. However, nine days following Boston, Cassidy’s partner Laiken gave birth to son Henrik – leaving Cassidy without a full night’s sleep for three weeks heading into one of the more difficult marathon courses on the circuit.

Despite the lack of sleep, and time off training during that time, Cassidy pulled off his highest ever finish in New York, placing fourth in 1 hour 40 minutes and 38 seconds.

“Expectations low, motivation high, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go,” was how Cassidy described his mindset heading into the race. The focus was a top-6 finish to be in the prize money.

As he reached the 1-mile mark atop the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn, Cassidy had already settled into fourth, between two packs. The following 25 miles would become a game of cat and mouse with American Daniel Romanchuk for bronze.

Cassidy held a ten second advantage at the mid way point, but Romanchuk was able to overtake him by the 25 km mark. Cassidy would narrow the gap to two seconds at the 20 mile marker, before hitting a wall in the final kilometres to hold on to fourth.

“Pretty emotional at the end, after an exhausting few weeks, tough marathon, a lot to overcome mentally and physically,” wrote Cassidy on Instagram this week. “Super proud of this one, and great way to end the season.”

In a road race closer to home, Nic Roberts took home top spot in The Great Big Cookie Run 5km last Sunday. Roberts crossed the line in a time of 15 minutes and 57.0 seconds, to finish nine seconds up on second place.

On the women’s side, Club President Jennifer Dumoulin finished in 22:26.0 to place 18th.

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Lions post top 10 finishes at Army Run

by Uncategorized

The pinnacle of the fall road racing schedule took place Sunday morning through the streets of downtown Ottawa and Gatineau as thousands of runners took part in the annual Canada Army Run which includes races of 5 and 10km as well as a half marathon.

The 5km event had a strong concentration of Lions athletes with 800 metre specialist Sebastian Saville posting the top overall finish among Club members, finishing fifth in a time of 17:00.4. Finishing just outside the top 10 was 15 year old Jack Link who crossed in 17:35.2 for 11th. Also in the top 20 for the men was Jay Sneddon in 17th.

For the women, both Skye Pellerin and Charlotte Murchison cracked the top 10 with the pair finishing seventh and eighth respectively. Pellerin, a recent  National Finalist in the RBC Training Ground competition,  finished in 19:47.7 while Murchison was two and a half seconds back.

In the half marathon event, Jason Dunkerley was 12th overall in a time of one hour, 20 minutes and 34.1 seconds. We believe Sunday’s run may have been the first half marathon for the five time Paralympic medalist who has previously run two marathon’s including a third place finish in last year’s Boston Marathon. Guiding Dunkerley Sunday were veteran Jeremie Venne and a recent addition to the club, Jean Marie Uwajeneza.

Finishing six minutes back of Dunkerley was Cameron Porter. The 16 year old Aspire athlete crossed in one hour, 26 minutes and 47.9 seconds to finish tops among the 14-19 year olds competing and 45th overall among the men.

Also putting forth a very strong effort in the half marathon was former Lion and University of Ottawa Gee Gee runner Erika Houde-Pearce finished fourth among the women with an impressive personal best of 1:29:24.3.

The Lions head on the road this weekend to compete at the University of Sherbrooke Vert et Or Invitation cross country event.