May 16, 2012 Ottawa – The Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club is excited to announce Scotiabank as the presenting sponsor of the 2012 Pan American Combined Events Cup. The Scotiabank Pan American Combined Events Cup will take place May 26 and 27 at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

To find out more, please click on Read More.

Melissa Bishop has run personal best times in 3 of her last 4 races at 800 metres but none had the impact of her most recent one at the Ponce Grand Prix in Puerto Rico.  Melissa established a new  personal best of 2:02.09 in the Dome in March and early last week lowered that mark to 2:01.81 in a big win at the Cayman Islands Invitational.  Then in Puerto Rico on Saturday, Melissa chased American Maggie Vesey to the finish line and went under the Olympic B standard of 2:01.30 with a sizzling 2:00.76. 

In order to make the Olympic team, Melissa must now run under the B standard once more and finish in the top 3 at the Olympic Trials in Calgary at the end of June.  Melissa must also finish ahead of any competitor who has made the B standard twice, something no Canadian woman has yet to achieve this once.  The A standard in the event is 1:59.90 and should Melissa continue her improvement this, too, may be possible and will make her road to London that much easier.

Jenn Perrault and Seb Saville both ran great personal bests at 800m at the Boston Twilight Series but the big story was Emma Galbraith, whose time of 2:06.52 put her on top of the National Junior rankings in the event.  This puts Emma in a great position to be selected to represent Canada at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona this summer as the top 2 Canadians in each event will qualify.

To get more information on this story, please click on Read More.

Jenn Perrault continues to enjoy her new career in track as she made 2 more successful debuts at the Big Red Invitational at Cornell on Sunday, April 28.  The former 400m runner moved up to the 1500m winning that event in 4:31.84 and came back later to capture the 800m in 2:08.28.  Jenn capped a successful day with a strong leg on the Lions' winning 4 x 400 relay.

Other wins for the Lions came from Delphine Atangana in the Women's 100m (11.91), Devin Biocchi in the 200m (21.79), Gord Frenke in the 400m (48.11) and Seb Saville in the 800m (1:55.30), who just edged out team mate Mickey Day (1:55.33) for that win.

Sekou Kaba cracked the 14 second barrier in finishing a close 2nd in the Men's 110m Hurdles in 13.99.  Emma Galbraith ran a strong 4:36.01 in the 1500m to finish 2nd behind Jenn Perrault.

The full results are posted on our Meet Results and Rankings page.

Mike Robertson won the Male Athlete of the Year Award at the uOttawa Annual Sports Award Night for his individual performance and his role on two national title relay teams.

2011-12 MVP’s for Track & Field were National CIS Champions Jennifer Perrault (1000m) and Sekou Kaba (60m Hurdles).   Both Perrault and Kaba won gold at the CIS Championships in their respective events.

MVP’s for Xcountry went to freshman – Isabelle Kanz and Justin Jakeman.

To read more about the performances of the uOttawa team at the CIS championships, just click on

http://issuu.com/ottawasportspage/docs/sportspage-april12

At the University of Florida Relays in Gainesville Segun Makinde and Mike Robertson combined with Jared Connaughton of New Haven, PEI and Gavin Smellie of Etobicoke, ON to set a new men's 4x200-metres Canadian record of 1:21.84. The previous record of 1:22.15 was set at the Penn Relays in 2004 by Tyler Christopher, Shane Niemi, Anson Henry and Pierre Browne.

Sultana Frizell has been named Athletics Canada's Athlete of the Month for her performance in smashing her old  Canadian record by almost 3 metres.

To read more, just click on

http://www.athletics.ca//files//GoldStandard/TGSAPR2012.PDF

Pat Arbour scored 7 personal bests on his way to a 7086 point performance at the JC Shootout in Tucson, Arizona.

To find out more, click on Read More

Sherry Carson cracked the 1:30 barrier for the half-marathon with her outstanding time of 1:29.39 and finished 2nd in her age division (55-59) at the World Masters Championships in Finland on April 7.

The Ottawa Lions are pleased to announce that the 2011 Legion Youth National Track & Field Championships hosted by the Ottawa Lions has been identified by the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance  as one of three nominees for their Prestige Award as the Canadian Sport Event of the Year.

For the full announcement, you can go to:

 http://canadiansporttourism.com/news/canadian-sport-tourism-alliance-announces-2012-csta-prestige-awards-finalists.html

Sultana Frizell has started her season on the highest of notes.  At her first meet, Sultana smashed her own Canadian record in the Women's Hammer by over 2 metres with a huge toss of 75.04 metres. The performance also eclipsed the Olympic A standard in the event meaning that Sultana just has to surpass the standard one more time and finish well at the National Championships in Calgary at the end of June.

For a more complete story on Sultana and her achievements, click on Read more to see the article from the Ottawa Citizen.

The final Dome Series meet of the season provides athletes with their first opportunity to race the standard outdoor distances of 200, 400 and 800 and Lions’ athletes took full advantage as 5 Dome records fell in these events.  Melissa Bishop’s performance was the most impressive as she took more than 6 seconds off the Open Women’s 800m record and eclipsed the 24 year old Club record of former Olympian, Grace Verbeek, with a blistering time of 2:02.09. Mike Robertson, running for uOttawa, took down both the 200m and 400m records in less than 2 hours by covering the half lap in 21.26 and the full lap in 47.10. 

Two more Dome records fell in the 800 as Emma Galbraith lowered the Under 20 mark to 2:09.19 and Mickey Day did the same to the Under 18 record with his time of 1:56.30.  The 6^th record of the day for the Lions came when Zachary Kerr established a new U18 mark with his 3.92m clearance in the Pole Vault.

Click on “Read more” to find out more about the top performances by members of the Lions and uOttawa.

Powered by 5 gold medal performances, both the men’s and women’s teams from uOttawa finished 5^th at the OUA championships held at York University on the weekend.  Jenn Perrault took home a full selection of medals by winning the 600m (1:31.21), coming 2^nd in the 1000m (2:50.96) and running a leg on the bronze medal 4 x 200m relay team while Segun Makinde bagged 2 gold medals by winning the 300m (33.85) and as part of the victorious 4 x 200m relay team.  The other two gold medal performances were turned in by Sekou Kaba in 60m Hurdles (7.93) and Mark Chenery in the Pentathlon (3825 points).

Click on “Read more” to find out about all the uOttawa athletes who won medals or finished in the top 8 to contribute to the team score.

Jenn Perrault of uOttawa became the first woman to crack the 1:30 barrier in the 600m in the Dome with her 1:29.91 and the uOttawa Men’s 4 x 200 team lowered their Dome record to 1:25.28, solidifying their #1 position in the Canadian university rankings.  The GG’s scored 7 other wins in the Open category of the meet.

Kevin Chung won the Open Long and Triple jumps to lead the Lions to 8 victories in the Open category while the young Lions had 10 wins in the Youth category of the meet.

The full story of the meet can be found by clicking on Read More and the results are posted under Results and Rankings.

Team Ontario, with 10 members of the Lions on its side, narrowly edged Team Quebec 105-104.  The young Lions won 2 events and contributed 3 x 2^nd place and 4 x 3^rd place finishes. 

Lindsay Kary (4:59.08) and Adam Richardson (4:06.18) won their respective 1500m races for Team Ontario.  The 2^nd place finishers were Charifa Labarang in the 200m (25.78), Alanna Shearman in the 1500m (4:59.86) and Nicholas Deschamps in the High Jump (1.85m).  Finishing 3^rd were Shelani Fernando in the 60m (7.92), Victoria McIntyre in the 200m (25.84), Mickey Day in the 800m (2:03.20) and Vincent Gionet in the Shot (13.74m).

Charifa, Shelani and Victoria were ¾ of the Ontario women’s 4 x 200m relay team that claimed victory over Team Quebec. 

Full results of the meet can be found at: http://www.athletisme.qc.ca/userfiles/file/html/matchjuv2012.htm

The uOttawa squad faced its greatest competitive challenge of the year at the New Balance Intercollegiate Invitational in New York City on the weekend.  This is one of the biggest meets on the university calendar in the U.S. attracting schools such as Alabama, Baylor, Duke, Clemson, Georgetown, Southern California and many others.  The meet boasts both an elite “Championship” Division and a slightly less competitive “Collegiate” Division in most events. 

In the Championship Division, the Men’s 4 x 200 Relay team demonstrated why they are the #1 team university team in Canada as they finished 3^rd (1:27.08) beating teams from South Carolina, Pittsburgh and BYU.  Mike Robertson was the top individual performer for uOttawa on the Championship side of the ledger as he powered his way to 7^th place (1:03.28) in the 500m event.

In the Collegiate Division, another relay team had the top performance for uOttawa as the 4 x 400 squad ran 3:16.69 to snare 3^rd place.  Jenn Perrault and Mark Chenery were the top individuals as each finished 4^th in their respective events.  Jenn raced to a personal best of 2:48.11 in the 1000m while Mark was clocked in 8.31 in the 60m Hurdles.  Julia Tousaw finished a strong 7^th in the 1000m in 2:51.22 and women’s 4 x 400 relay team ran 3:48.58 to finish 8^th.

Complete results can be found at:

http://www.runnerspace.com/news.php?news_id=23119-2012-Live-Results-New-Balance-Collegiate-Invitational

The McGill Team Challenge is one of the best indoor meets in Canada and it brought out the best from a number of Lions, uOttawa individuals and relay teams.  Esther Akinsule took down the longstanding club record in the 60m as she cruised to victory in 7.43.   Jen Perrault got two CIS auto qualifying standards with her win in the 600m (1:30.99) and close 2^nd in the 1000m (2:49.50).  The men’s sprint relay teams set two meet records and hit CIS auto qualifying times in the 4 x 200m (1:26.80) and 4 x 400m (3:17.77).  Mark Chenery, Sekou Kaba and Segun Makinde also hit CIS auto qualifying marks with their wins in the pentathlon (3745 points), 60m Hurdles (8.05) and 300m (33.90) respectively.  High schooler Adam Palamar was very impressive finishing 4^th against a strong field of university athletes in the 1500m in a time (3:51.74) that tops the Canadian Junior rankings. 

For the fourth year in a row, the Ottawa Lions were named the top amatuer club at the annual Ottawa Sports Awards dinner held on Wednesday.  The club had another fantastic year as they earned the title of top track and field club in Ontario by sweeping the team title in 4 of the 5 age categories contested, coming a close 2nd in the 5th.  The Lions also won the team title at the National Junior Championships in Winnipeg and the National Youth Championships hosted here in Ottawa.

The Lions and uOttawa sprinters swept the top 3 spots in both the Womens’ and Men’s 60m events at the St. Lawrence University Invitational on Saturday.  Delphine Atangana won the women’s 60m (7.49) while Moussa Sissoko (6.82) won the men’s event.  Charifa Labarang (200m), Victoria McIntyre (400m), Denray Jean Jacques (500m), Michele Krech (60m Hurdles) and Julia Nikonorova (Mile) all won their events for the Lions.  Please click on Read More to find out more about our athletes.

There was another large turnout at the Super Saturday Dome Series, this time with an international flavour as St. Lawrence University from New York was in attendance.  The meet was highlighted by a couple of excellent 300m runs from the Lions’ Esther Akinsule (37.83) and Mike Robertson (33.40), the latter competing for uOttawa.   Other highlights, all turned in by Lions’ athletes competing for uOttawa, included Sekou Kaba’s run over the 60m Hurdles(8.12), Julia Tousaw’s 1000m (2:49.19) and Segun Makinde’s 60m dash (6.88).  The only Dome record fell when the uOttawa Men’s 4 x 200m relay team hit the line in a sizzling 1:26.09.

For more information on the meet, please click on Read More.  Results from the meet are available on our Results and Ranking page.

Annie Leblanc of Quebec ran a nation leading 2:44.81 in the 1000m to crush both the U20 and Open Dome records in the first meet of the Super Saturday Indoor Series.  The meet, which attracted the largest turnout in its history, saw 5 other Dome records fall, four of them to Lions’ athletes.  In the U16 category, the record setters were Lindsay Spoerri in the 300 metres, Alanna Shearman in the 1000 metres and Lucas Trapeau in the 1500 metres while Adam Palamar broke the U18 mark in the 1500 metres.

To find out more about the meet, just click on “Read more” and check out the full results posted on our site.

Athletics Canada today announced that Jason Dunkerley is the 2011 winner of the Outstanding Para-Athlete of the Year Award.  Jason had an outstanding year.  He won gold in the 800 metres in the T11 classification at the IPC World Championships in New Zealand in February.  At the Para Pan-American Games in Guadalajara in November, Jason won the silver medal in the 1500 metres and the bronze medal in the 5000 metres. 

Congratulations Jason!

A large group of Lions, running for the club and the uOttawa GGs, competed at the Can-Am Invitational hosted by St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York on Saturday and won 14 events, breaking 5 fieldhouse records in the process.

Frenke, Tousaw and Fernando led the record parade for the Lions while Makinde and Robertson set records competing for uOttawa.  To find out more about these and other performances, check out ‘Read more’.

On very cool, windy and wet Saturday in Vancouver at the Canadian Cross Country Championships, our Masters Men 40+ team won the team title.  Yves Sikubwabo’s strong 2^nd place finish led the Junior Men’s team to a bronze medal and the Junior Women’s team finished just 2 points out of third.  Check out ‘Read more’ for more details.

Jason Dunkerley showed his mettle at the Para Pan-Am Games when, after losing his regular guide runner to injury, he still managed to win a silver medal in the 1500m and a bronze medal in the 5000m. Alister McQueen, recently arrived in Ottawa, won bronze in both the Men's T44 200m and javelin.

Click on 'Read more' to find out more about these performances and how replacement guides stepped up to help Jason.

The Youth Girls’ and Junior Men’s teams won convincingly at the Ontario Cross Country Championships leading the Lions to a 4^th place finish in the overall club standings.  The Midget Girls’ team took the silver medal and the Junior Women grabbed the bronze medal. 

The top individuals were Olivia Robertson (Midget), Emma Galbraith (Youth) and Scott Donald (Junior) who all finished 4^th in their respective races. 

Click on Read More for additional information.

Sultana Frizell celebrated her birthday in style by having her best throw of the season (70.11 metres) to win the silver medal at the Pan Am Games.  Here is the relevant part of the Press Release issued by Athletics Canada,

``Sultana Frizell has won Canada’s first athletics (track and field) medal at the XVI Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico in the women's hammer throw. If that isn't memorable enough for the athlete from Perth, Ont., who trains under the great Anatoliy Bondarchuk, today just happens to be her birthday. "I am super happy with today especially with not going to Worlds. I went back and refocused and put everything into medaling here at Pan Ams. I wanted to perform well here and that’s the case”, said a jubilant Frizell. Her throw of 70.11 metres was good for second place behind Cuba’s Yipsi Morena who set a new Pan American Games record of 75.62 metres.``

Sultana Frizell, Canadian and Commonwealth record holder in the Hammer Throw, and 400 metre specialist Mike Robertson have been named to the Canadian team that will be competing at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The Games get underway this month with the Athletics competion beginning on Sunday, October 23.

To check on their progress, visit the web site of Athletics Canada.

The Ottawa Lions are pleased to announce that we have received a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation for $35,000 to increase the safety and quality of training and competitions for all ages by certifying volunteer officials and purchasing new and improved equipment. 

The Mission Statement of the Ontario Trillium Foundation is “Building healthy and vibrant communities throughout Ontario by strengthening the capacity of the voluntary sector, through investments in community-based initiatives.” 

The Lions are committed to expanding the opportunity for people, young and old, to participate in track and field at the level to which they aspire.  The club has coaching programs for all ages and abilities, from 6 to 60 and from beginners to national team members.  As well, the club provides competitions at all levels from elementary schools through high school, university to provincial and national championships.  As a result of the club’s endeavours, Ottawa has become the track and field hub of Eastern Ontario for competition and the training of coaches and officials.

The Athletics competition of the Commonwealth Youth Games starts tomorrow in the Isle of Man.  Denray Jean Jacques gets into the blocks for his 400 metre heat on Friday hoping to advance to the final on Saturday.  Emma Galbraith toes the line on Saturday for her semi-final in the 800 metre with the final on Sunday.

All that anyone can ask of an athlete who is going to compete at an international championships is to come up with their best performance.  Segun Makinde did that and more at the World Student Games in Shenzhen, China.  Segun beat his personal best in all 4 rounds of the Men`s 200 metres.   Segun entered the competition with a personal best of 20.99 but lowered that to 20.90 in the very first round.  He then ran 20.72 and 20.74 in the next 2 rounds to advance to the final where he raced to a great 5^th place finish in 20.83.

Mike Robertson advanced to the semi-final round with a time of 47.20,  ran 47.52 in the semi-final but did not advance to the final.

Adam Palamar won 2 gold medals leading the Lions to 13 gold, 17 silver and 7 bronze medals at the Bantam, Midget, Youth Championships in Toronto last weekend.  The Lions won the Bantam and Youth categories.  The points tallied this weekend combined with the results from the Junior and Senior Championships led the Lions to their 7^th straight overall club championship, more than doubling the score of the second place club.