Dear Athletes, Coaches, Officials, Volunteers, and Friends of the Ottawa Lions,
When Athletics Canada awarded Ottawa the right to host the 2025 and 2026 Canadian Track and Field Championships back in 2022, it felt like a distant milestone on the horizon. Four years later, having now delivered on that commitment across two summers, I can say without hesitation that it was one of the proudest undertakings of my time with this Club.
Detailed planning began in earnest in the early months of 2024, when our Local Organising Committee first came together. From there, we met monthly for nearly two years, working through the countless decisions, large and small, that stand between an idea and an event — always with the same goals in mind: a venue worthy of the athletes who would compete in it, an experience that let spectators feel the full weight of the athletic feats before them, and a platform that gave media the support they needed to tell the stories that make our sport great.
Our first Championship in ‘25 gave us about as gentle an introduction as we could have hoped for. The weather cooperated, the meet ran smoothly, and we closed the year having proven yet again that Ottawa could deliver a Championship the whole country could be proud of.
This year’s event had other plans for us. We spent months bracing for what we thought would be our biggest obstacle: a Championship date a week earlier than in recent memory, one that threatened to keep many of our U20 athletes on the sidelines and in exam rooms instead of on the track. In the end, that fear never materialized with entries topping even those of 2025. Mother Nature, having let us off easy the year prior, made sure we earned it this time, dropping more than an inch of rain across the middle three days of competition, with the heaviest of it arriving just as our U20 men and women stepped up for the 400m finals. If there’s a silver lining to be found in that soaked track, it’s that the combination of grit and elements produced some of the most striking images of the entire Championship, captured for posterity by the venerable Mundo Sport Images.
Through it all, the athletes delivered. Nine new Championship records were set in 2026, headlined by Evan Dunfee’s extraordinary effort to take down a 30-year-old Canadian record in the 20,000m race walk.
I owe particular thanks to Athletics Canada, who entrusted Ottawa with the right to host these Championships back in 2022 and worked alongside us at every step to deliver an event worthy of this country’s athletes. That partnership, and the confidence it reflected in our community, is something for which I remain deeply grateful.
None of what happened on the track or in the field over these two years would have been possible without the LOC, the hundreds of Championship volunteers, and the officials who provide the stage on which the athletes can succeed.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the dedicated group I’ve had the privilege of working alongside over the past 30 months: Lisa Ferdinand and Rick Watkins (Officials), Amanda Fader (Para), Jackie Coughlin (Ticketing), Adrian Huynh (Medical), Rémi Combasson (Doping Control), Jessica McRae (Accreditation), Sarah Dillabaugh and Yolande Jones-Grande (Catering), Geneviève Daigle, Michel Hachey, and Selwyn Desouza (Volunteers), Stephanie Lapolice (Medal Ceremonies), and Karine Millard who lent a hand in so many domains. My thanks also go to Chantal Backman (Medical), Sammie Brennan (Security), and Juliana Von Crammon (Transportation), who were instrumental to the success of the 2025 Championships.
I’d also like to personally thank the support systems behind everyone on the LOC. Carving out evenings, weekends, and vacation days for this event over two years was only possible because of those at home who so graciously picked up the slack and supported us.
To our Lions staff — Tim Nedow, Quinn Lyness, Connor Dobson, Alexis Morin, and Charlotte Murchison — thank you. Your work to help deliver a Championship of this calibre consistently went above and beyond what anyone could have asked.
And the biggest thank you of all must go to Richard Johnston, for his tireless efforts to ensure these Championships served our athletes first — all while pulling double duty leading the Lions as head coach throughout.
It has been the honour of a lifetime to help bring this Championship to Ottawa, not once, but twice. Thank you all for making it possible.
Sincerely,
Ryan Rowat
Chair, Local Organising Committee
2025–2026 Canadian Track and Field Championships
Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club