~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
Hurdler Kaba & decathlete Arbour join Lions group of 6 national team athletes for Pan Am Games
By Anil Jhalli
They didn’t make the grade for last year’s Commonwealth Games, but Sekou Kaba and Patrick Arbour picked a fine time to join four fellow Ottawa Lions Track-and-Club members on the national team for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games.
“This is such a big deal,” smiles Kaba, 24. “To represent your country at such a level, it means so much.”
The Guinea-born 110-metre hurdler first competed for Canada at the 2013 Francophone Games shortly after receiving his Canadian citizenship, winning gold over a former world champion.
Kaba was on the rise when he set a new Canadian university record in the 60 m hurdlers as a uOttawa Gee-Gee, but couldn’t keep the momentum going in his 2014 outdoor season, missing the chance to compete at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
While Kaba says that competing at the Commonwealth Games would have been a tremendous opportunity, he translated the disappointment into motivation to be at his best in advance of the Pan Am Games.
The Sir Robert Borden High School grad kicked off his 2015 season by posting his fastest time ever – twice running 13.61 at April events in Florida. He later bettered that mark at the July 2-5 Canadian Track-and-Field Championships in Edmonton with a 13.43 clocking that also qualified him for the Aug. 22-30 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Beijing.
The performances served “as a confirmation that I can be the best and that I am very well prepared for this,” highlights Kaba, the 3rd-place finisher nationally behind Arbour’s chief Canadian competition, 2013 decathlon world bronze medallist Damian Warner, who set a new national championships record of 13.27 in the race.
“I won’t be satisfied to go to the Pan Am Games and just try to score a personal best,” Kaba adds. “You are there to win. You are there to be at the top.”
Decathlete hits #1 career goal
Arbour says he also would have liked to compete at last summer’s Commonwealth Games, but his objective for the last few years has always been set in stone.
“Competing at the Pan Am Games, that’s what I have been working towards and now I am getting that chance,” underlines the 27 year-old former ‘AAA’ hockey player. “I am looking forward to this chance. It’s exciting and it’s an honour to represent your country, especially in your home country.”
Arbour qualified for the Pan Am Games based on his best overall score from 2014 (7,385 points). The University of Ottawa grad from Stittsville was recently crowned Canadian champion at the June 19-21 Capital Cup, part of the IAAF combined events series.
Despite posting less than stellar numbers by his standard at his home Terry Fox Athletic Facility (he managed an overall score of 7,147 points), Arbour did establish a new personal-best time in the 400 m.
The throws specialist says of course he would love to come away with a medal at the Pan Am Games, but if he is able to achieve a personal best, he will be happy with the result.
“I’ve worked hard to get to this point, and if I go out here, and do my best, I will be happy,” indicates Arbour, whose personal-best total of 7,593 came in 2013. “If I don’t feel like I did well, then I’ll know I just have to keep working harder.”
Commonwealth crew return
The other four Lions Pan Am participants were all 2014 Commonwealth Games competitors. The Lions throwers offer the top prospects for medal wins in Toronto.
Sultana Frizell casually broke the 70 m barrier for the fifth time this season to win the fifth Canadian title of her career in Edmonton.
Frizell is currently ranked highest out of athletes in the Americas (6th in the world), but the Commonwealth Games record holder will face tougher competition from U.S. and Cuban athletes than she did in defending her Commonwealth gold last summer in Glasgow.
Tim Nedow, a Brockville native who trained with the Lions in his teenage years and has now re-associated with the club while training primarily out of Sweden, was also a Commonwealth Games medallist last summer, winning shotput bronze. The 24-year-old will compete in both shotput and discus in Toronto, with a number of U.S. athletes ranked ahead of his respective 17th and 82nd world standings.
Women’s 800 m national silver medallist Melissa Bishop enters the Pan Ams with a season-best World Championships-qualifying time of 2:00.67 in her back pocket, while men’s 4×400 m relay competition Michael Robertson (5th in men’s 400 at nationals) is still chasing his worlds standard.
The track-and-field portion of the July 10-26 Pan Am Games runs from July 21-25 at York University.
More national champs
Competing in the junior nationals alongside the seniors in Edmonton, several Ottawa athletes claimed medals, including Lions Claire Smith (the women’s 3,000 m champion in 9:49.87), Matthew Bedard (men’s 400 m hurdles winner in 52.74), women’s 800 m silver medallist Erinn Stenman-Fahey, and men’s high jump champion Steve Nkusi, who bested Hans Lafleur of C.A.N.I. Athletics by one height with a personal-best leap of 2.06 m. Shermar Paul scored a second silver for C.A.N.I. with his men’s 200 m performance of 21.63.
The selection picture for the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games became muddied when Athletics Canada learned shortly before the nationals that their team would be limited to 35 entries instead of the 60 they originally expected.
The top local performers were Lions Jason Dunkerley (who ran 16:20.85 in the 5,000 m) and Stuart McGregor (4:20.30 in the 1,500 m and 53.75 in the 400 m) – both national champions in their respective T11 and T13 categories for athletes with visual impairments.