By Brendan McConnell
Sekou Kaba won gold in his first time wearing the maple leaf internationally, while Segun Makinde earned his first and second international titles as the Ottawa Lions sprint pair led local performers at September’s Francophone Games in Nice, France.
Just one year removed from receiving his Canadian citizenship, Kaba beat out 2005 world champion Ladji Doucoure of France and ran a season-best time to bring home gold in the men’s 110-metre hurdles. “It’s what I’ve been dreaming of for a while,” smiles Kaba, who posted a time of 13.84 seconds into a negative headwind. “I’ve worked really hard and thought it was very well deserved.”
While the gold is prize enough, the third-year University of Ottawa criminology student says he couldn’t help but feel satisfaction when he took down a former world champion, and with a season’s best time to boot. “The way I looked at it going into the race was that I would just use him as a tool to run a faster time,” Kaba explains. “I went into the race hoping for a medal of some colour and I’m glad he pushed me all the way to the finish line.”
Born in Guinea, Kaba and his family moved to Canada in 2007 from the U.S., where he lived in Michigan and Georgia. After narrowly missing a chance to represent Canada at the London 2012 Olympics in part because of his citizenship coming a bit too late, the Sir Robert Borden Secondary School grad set his sights this year on the Edmonton International Track Classic, where he placed sixth, and these Francophone Games.
Now that his citizenship is finalized, Kaba says this gold is just the first step in his international career. “I haven’t made any world championship team so I’m hoping to carry this year’s momentum into next year and make that team,” highlights Kaba, who’s also eyeing a spot on the Canadian 2014 Commonwealth Games team.
Makinde doubles up
Ottawa’s other two gold medals came from Makinde, an alternate for Canada’s 4×100 m relay team at the London 2012 Olympics and this year’s bronze medal-winning world championships crew.
The Gee-Gee sprinter became Ottawa’s most decorated athlete of the Francophone Games with his victories in the 200 m and 4×100 relay. “It’s pretty big and special, especially when you get to win your first international title,” says Makinde, who ran a blistering 20.80 in the 200, also into a headwind. “It kind of makes you think about where you came from and how you started,” adds the Colonel By Secondary School grad. “It’s pretty amazing to see how far you’ve come.”
Makinde, who was born in Nigeria and moved to Ottawa in 2003 when his father completed a PhD at the University of Alberta and got a job with the government, carried Canada’s flag at the closing ceremonies to lead the 113-athlete Canadian contingent.
On top of his double-gold medal performance in Nice, the Glenroy Gilbert-coached athlete also narrowly missed out on a medal at the FISU World University Games this past summer with a fourth-place finish in the 200 m.
The Francophone Games marked the end of a solid season for Makinde, who now sets his sights on finishing his business degree this year before taking on the Commonwealth Games next year. Other athletes with Ottawa connections to win medals in Nice were middle-distance runner Melissa Bishop, shotputter Tim Nedow, wrestler Alex Brown-Theriault, and 400 m wheelchair racer Curtis Thom.
Bishop helped Canada snag silver in the women’s 4×400 m relay, and added a bronze in the 800 m, clocking in at 2:03.44. Nedow, Brown-Theriault and Thom finished out the local hardware haul with bronze in each of their respective events.