HIGH ACHIEVERS WRAP: Gatineau sprinter Audrey Leduc breaks Canadian women’s 100-metre record

By Martin Cleary

After an extended break from the computer keyboard to catch up on this, that and everything in between, it’s time to bring you up to speed about the active Ottawa amateur sports scene over the past 10 days.

And, appropriately enough, let’s step into the starting blocks so we can blast off and learn about Canada’s newest sprint phenom, who is from Gatineau.

Audrey Leduc is the fastest woman in spiked shoes in Canada.

The Gatineau Athletics Club sprinter rocketed to that rarefied title on April 20 and she’ll carry that momentum and positivity for Canada into this weekend’s World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas.

For 36 years, the late Angela Bailey clutched the Canadian women’s senior 100-metre dash record at 10.98 seconds. But Leduc went two one-hundredths of a second better for a pending national mark of 10.96 seconds.

The Université Laval Rouge et Or student-athlete eclipsed the 11-second mark for the first time in her career and joined Bailey as only the second Canadian female sprinter to produce a legal time under 11 seconds.

Leduc, 25, set her national record and personal best and met the national Olympic qualifying standard by placing second in the women’s 100-metre final at the LSU Alumni Gold meet in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. American Aleia Hobbs won the race in 10.88 seconds, which is the second fastest time in the world this season. Leduc’s time was fifth fastest in the world for the early part of this season.

After a hesitant start and needing to make up ground quickly, Leduc used her physical strength and high-end speed to become a challenger by mid race and the silver medallist at the finish. Leduc knew she had achieved the Athletics Canada Olympic team standard of 11.07 seconds, but she didn’t realize until later she had broken the long-standing Canadian record.

At the 2024 U Sports track and field championships, Leduc showed she was getting faster. She set an indoor personal-best time of 7.21 seconds in the women’s 60-metre preliminary race and won the gold medal at 7.26 seconds.

Leduc recently was named to Athletics Canada’s women’s 4×100-metre relay team for the World Athletics Relays along with Jacqueline Madogo of Ottawa and the Royal City Athletics Club in Guelph, ON. Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club’s Lauren Gale will run in the women’s 4×400-metre and the mixed 4×400-metre relays.

DIVER KATE MILLER EARNS SYNCHRO SILVER AT WORLD CUP SUPER FINAL

Calgary’s Caeli McKay and Ottawa’s Kate Miller were come-from-behind silver medallists in the women’s 10-metre synchronized diving event at the World Cup Super Final in Xi’an, China.

Entering their fifth and final dive in fourth place, the young tandem scored a remarkable 70.08 points to surge past the Ukrainian and Mexican teams into second place. McKay and Miller finished with 296.10 points, while gold-medallists Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi of China scored 364.86 points.

McKay and Miller took a different approach to the Super Final, using a new list of dives, which they normally wouldn’t attempt at the end of a four-year Olympic cycle.

The Canadian Olympic diving trials are May 17-19 in Windsor.

ALPINE SKIER FINLAY GERMAN WINS WHISTLER CUP

Finlay German was the under-16 men’s overall champion at the Whistler Cup international youth alpine ski competition.

The Grade 10 Ashbury College student was second in the giant slalom, third in the slalom and sixth in the super-g to top the combined standings.

German was the Quebec provincial champion earlier this season skiing out of Mont-Tremblant.

Team Ontario’s Alexandra Houle of Camp Fortune also placed 10th in the women’s giant slalom at the Whistler Cup.

3 OTTAWA HOCKEY PLAYERS HELP CANADA REACH WORLD U18 QUARTERS

Canada will play Latvia in the quarterfinals of the world men’s U18 hockey championship in Espoo-Vantaa, Finland.

The round-robin ended Tuesday with Canada securing first place in Pool B with a 4-0 record, after an 11-3 decision over Kazakhstan.

Three Ottawa skaters played significant roles in the victory over Kazakhstan. Kanata’s Cole Beaudoin, a forward for the OHL’s Barrie Colts, and Ottawa’s Henry Mews, a defenceman for the Ottawa 67’s, each counted one goal and added one assist, while Markham’s Frankie Marrelli, a defenceman with the 67’s, recorded one goal.

Beaudoin has posted one goal and three assists after four round-robin games, while Mews has one goal and two assists and Marrelli has registered one goal.

PACIFIC TIGERS BUILDING TEAM UNDER HEAD COACH DAVE SMART

Dave Smart, one of the most successful U Sports men’s basketball head coaches when he was with the Carleton University Ravens, is starting to build his new team at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.

He has filled two spots on his coaching staff by signing Myke Scholl, who has 16 years NCAA Division 1 experience, and Clay Wilson, who helped North Texas win the 2023 NIT Tournament before coaching with Smart last season at Texas Tech.

Jefferson Koulibaly of Montreal has become the first Canadian player to commit to play for Smart’s Tigers. Koulibaly started at Washington State (2020-22), switched to Southern Methodist (2022-24), committed to Jacksonville State through the transfer portal this year but later decommitted before he committed to Pacific.

HOWARD RAJALA COACHES KOREANS, LISA WEAGLE JOINS ST-GEORGES’ RINK

Two days after skipping his Rideau Curling Club rink to the Canadian men’s masters championship, Howard Rajala was on a plane heading for Oestersund, Sweden, for the world mixed doubles championship.

This time he wasn’t curling, but rather coaching.

Rajala and Yang Jaebong were the co-coaches for the South Korean team at the worlds and Kim Ji-yoon and Jeong Byeongjin came within one win of qualifying for the playoffs.

After Kim and Jeong placed 16th at the 2023 world mixed doubles championship (2-7) and grabbing the last spot in the standings to avoid relegation for this year, they placed seventh overall out of 20 countries with a 5-4 record.

After losing three of their first four matches, Kim and Jeong rebounded to win four of their last five games. But a critical 9-5 loss to winless New Zealand in their second last match cost them a trip to the playoffs.

South Korea defeated Scotland, which placed sixth overall, and narrowly lost 6-4 to Canada, which finished fifth, and 8-5 to gold-medallist Sweden.

Meanwhile, two-time Olympian Lisa Weagle of Ottawa is returning to full-time action in the four-player game as she has joined the Laurie St-Georges’ Glenmore Curling Club team from Dollard-des-Ormeaux, PQ, for the 2024-25 season.

Weagle, who won a world title and three Canadian women’s Scotties championships with skip Rachel Homan, will play her familiar lead position and join third Jamie Sinclair of Osgoode, ON., and second Emily Riley.

DOZEN AREA NORDIC SKIERS SELECTED TO NORDIQ CANADA TEAMS

Nordiq Canada has named 12 Ottawa-Gatineau skiers to its various national teams for the 2024-25 season.

Nakkertok Nordic’s Katherine Stewart-Jones and Antoine Cyr of Skinouk were renamed to Canada’s A team and will compete on the World Cup circuit and focus on the 2025 world championships.

Pierre Grall-Johnson of Ottawa, Anna Stewart of Thunder Bay, Katya Semeniuk of Ottawa and Jasmine Lyons of Ottawa, who all ski for Nakkertok, and Ry Prior of Chelsea Nordiq were selected to the national B team.

The national group 1 team includes Tory Audet of Chelsea Nordiq and Luke Allan of Nakkertok, while the group 2 squad has Aidan Kirkham of the University of Ottawa and Kanata Nordic Ski Club.

Emma Archibald of the University of Ottawa was named to the para nordic World Cup team, while Clara Hegan of Nakkertok was placed on the development team.

LOCAL PADDLERS HEADING TO HUNGARY

Ottawa River Canoe Club’s Brianna Hennessy and the Rideau Canoe Club’s Gabe Ferron-Bouius will represent Canada at the para world sprint canoe championships May 9-11 in Szeged, Hungary.

At the same site from May 10-12, Sophia Jensen of the Cascades Canoe Club and Rideau’s Toshka Besharah-Hrebacka and Natalie Davison will compete in the only World Cup regatta before the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

Madeline Schmidt and Maren Bradley of Rideau finished third in the women’s kayak double over 500 metres at the Americas Continental Olympic qualifier and Pan American championships, but missed qualifying another Summer Games spot for Canada by one place.

LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST

Colonel By Secondary School grad Rene Konga, a defensive lineman who had eight solo and six assisted tackles in three seasons with Rutgers University, has come through the transfer portal by committing to the University of Louisville for his senior season in 2024.

Fabienne Blizzard, co-founder of the Capital Courts Academy, will return as head coach for Canada at the FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup July 13-21 in Leon and Irapuato, Mexico. In her national head coaching debut, Blizzard led Canada to a silver medal at the 2023 FIBA Americas’ women’s U16 championship

Maxime Gratton of Ottawa has been named to the Canadian men’s U23 volleyball team for the upcoming NORCECA championship.

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