HIGH ACHIEVERS WRAP: 4 National Capital Region sprinters named to Canadian team for Paris Olympics

By Martin Cleary

The National Capital Region has some of the fastest sprinters in Canada and there’s an impressive group charging right behind them.

The proof is in the Athletics Canada track and field championships, which were held over the final five days of June in Montreal, as well as the press release the national sport organization released Tuesday naming its team for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games.

Audrey Leduc of Gatineau, Jacqueline Madogo of Ottawa, Eliezer Adjibi of Ottawa and Lauren Gale of Ottawa, who represent four different clubs, have been selected to Canada’s 48-athlete team for the Olympics, which begin July 26.

Leduc, who broke the Canadian women’s senior 100- and 200-metre records earlier this season and helped Canada qualify for entry into the Olympic women’s 4×100-metre relay, more than proved her fitness at the national championships by winning her two sprint specialties.

A Gatineau Athletics Club speedster who trains at the Athletics Canada high-performance centre in Montreal, Leduc won the 100 metres in 11.20 seconds and the 200 metres in 22.71 seconds, which was aided by an illegal wind of 2.7 metres/second.

“I did not see this coming,” Leduc said in the Athletics Canada press release. “I was hoping to qualify for the relay and the 100 metres via the world rankings, but I didn’t expect the 200 metres, too.

“I’ve done the Quebec Games and the Canada Games, and the Olympic Games is just the big thing, every four years. I’m just excited to get there, represent Canada as best I can and run fast. On the track side, I want to qualify for the finals. On the personal side, I want to collect as many pins as I can.”

Madogo, who attended Ottawa’s Franco Ouest high school but represents the Guelph-based Royal City Athletics Club, was right behind Leduc in the two sprint finals. The former University of Guelph student-athlete was the silver medallist over 100 metres in 11.36 seconds, and earned the 200-metre bronze in 22.95 seconds.

Adjibi, who competes for C.A.N.I. Athletics, is moving into the upper echelon of sprinting as he has twice run legal times this season under 10.10 seconds – 10.04 seconds and 10.07 seconds. His fastest time of 9.98 seconds at the Royal City Inferno in Guelph can be used as a good motivator as it can’t be his personal best time because the wind was barely too strong at 2.1 metres/second. The maximum allowable wind is 2.0 metres/second.

At the nationals, Adjibi focused on the men’s senior 100 metres. He posted the second-fastest time in the heats at 10.13 seconds and his 10.23 seconds in the final gave him the silver medal. In the final, he was only 0.03 seconds behind Canadian sprint star Andre De Grasse.

For a brief period, the scoreboard indicated Adjibi had won the race. But the official results showed a one-two De Grasse-Adjibi finish.

Gale, who wears the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club colours, was impressive in the women’s senior 400 metres. She placed second in the final at 51.35 seconds, after qualifying second out of the heats in 51.87 seconds.

She recorded the third best time in the 200-metre heats at 23.57 seconds, but elected not to run the final.

“We have such a deep 400 pool. We could sub any of these ladies in – it’s exciting,” said Gale, who is one of seven women distance sprinters who have run under 53 seconds.

The national championships not only celebrated the best senior athletes, but also the leading runners, jumpers and throwers in the junior (U20) class. Ottawa runners played a major role in reaching the finish line quickly in the sprints.

Jorai Oppong-Nketiah, a Grade 10 graduate who didn’t run her 2024 high-school season because of a school transfer rule, deserved consideration for the Olympic team, after her stellar performances in the junior sprints.

The Lions’ sprinter with long, pink-coloured hair set off alarms in her women’s U20 100-metre heat, when she ran 11.38 seconds. Her legal time (0.9 metre/second wind) was a Canadian U18 record by 19 one-hundredths of a second, bettered the world junior championships standard and would have placed her third in the women’s senior final.

When it came time for the final, she almost matched her previous clocking with an 11.39-second effort, which gave her the gold medal.

“When I’m under pressure, I tend to run better and faster and harder,” she said in a story on the Lions’ website. “I worked on my starts. I think my start had a huge impact on the outcome of my race.”

Oppong-Nketiah captured the silver medal in the 200-metre final in 23.76 seconds. She qualified for the final with a second-best time in the heats at 24.07 seconds.

William Batley of C.A.N.I. used his speed, technique and a little help from the wind to capture the men’s junior 200 metres in 20.76 seconds (2.9 metres/second). The 17-year-old also dipped under 21 seconds in the heats, going a top-ranked 20.98 seconds.

Batley was fifth over 100 metres with a time of 10.76 seconds in the final and 10.65 seconds in his heat.

Zachary Jeggo of the Lions was a double medallist in races involving a single sprint around the track. He won the silver medal in the 400-metre hurdles in 54.69 seconds and the bronze medal in the 400 metres in 48.29 seconds.

After posting the fastest qualifying time in the women’s U20 400-metre hurdles at 1:01.32, Quinn Coughlin of the Lions went faster in the final, but settled for the bronze medal in 1:01.14.

Bianca Borgella, a visually-impaired runner with the Lions, won the women’s T13 gold medal in the 100 metres in 12.20 seconds to meet the qualifications to represent Canada at the Paris Paralympic Games.

The 2023 Ottawa Sports Awards track-and-field athlete of the year also competed in the women’s senior 100 metres and finished 16th overall in 11.97 seconds, which was only 0.05 seconds off her national Para record. She ran her two finals only a few minutes apart.

“Running in the able-bodied event is something I had to do,” Borgella said in a Canadian Paralympic Committee press release. “I wanted to make a statement that Para athletes could compete side-by-side with able-bodied athletes. Being able to make the semis was a goal of mine.”

Lions’ David Adeleye powered his way to the silver medal in the men’s senior 110-metre hurdles in 13.94 seconds.

Here is the list of the other Ottawa medal-winning athletes at the national athletics championship:

GOLD

Madeleine Seaby, Lions, women’s 5,000 metres, 17 minutes, 10.45 seconds;

Josh Cassidy, Lions, men’s wheelchair 1,500 metres, 3:18.55;

SILVER

Kevin Robertson, Lions, men’s 3,000-metre steeplechase, 8:37.91;

Connor Fraser, Lions, men’s discus, 50.57 metres;

Kathryn Moreland, Lions, women’s heptathlon, 4,177 points;

Kate Current, Lions, women’s 1,500 metres, 4:12.62;

Joshua Foster, C.A.N.I., men’s long jump, 7.17 metres;

Liam Davis, Lions, men’s U20 shot put, 15.23 metres;

BRONZE

Keegan Gaunt of Ottawa, unattached, women’s Para ambulatory 400 meters, 1:02.20;

Foster Malleck, Lions, men’s 1,500 metres, 3:46.34.

THOMAS SCRUBB JOINS FORMER RAVEN AARON DOORNEKAMP IN SPAIN

After playing the last three years with Monbus Obraboiro in Santiago de Compostella, Spain, and averaging 11.8 points and 5.5 rebounds a game, Thomas Scrubb has a new home for the 2024-25 season.

Scrubb, who is attending the Canadian men’s Olympic team training camp this week with his brother Phil, will play for La Laguna Teneife of Liga ACB, which is the top league in Spain. A former Carleton University guard, he’ll join Ravens’ alumnus Aaron Doornekamp on the roster of the Canary Island-based team.

Thomas Scrubb, who has played 33 international games for Canada and participated in the 2019 World Cup, signed a one-year contract with Tereife plus a one-year option.

ROBERT KAJUGA SCORES COMFORTABLE CANADA DAY RACE WIN

Robert Kajuga of Ottawa won the Canada Day 10-kilometre race in Kanata in 31:28, while Christopher Aranda of Ottawa was second in 33:20 and Canadian cross-country ski team member Aidan Kirkham of Kanata was third in 33:36.

The top three women were Nadine Frost-Corinaldi of Ottawa, 35:56; Tove Halvorsen of Wakefield, 38:33; and Marie-France Noel, 41:02.

The men’s five-kilometre race was the closest of the big events as Charlie Mortimer of Ottawa placed first in 16:19, Alex Hutton of Toronto was second in 16:22 and Ottawa’s Zachary Sikka was third in 16:32.

Ottawa’s Alexandra Hynes led the women to the finish line in 17:42, while Andrea Hill of Ottawa was runner-up in 17:50 and Veronica Allan took third in 18:57.

LAST, BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST

Elusive running back Hugo Djeumeni Kemeni, a former St. Matthew Catholic High School student and football player, has committed to attend Yale University in 2025-26, after his senior year at Tabor Academy. Djeumeni Kemeni was the co-New England Player of the Year in 2023-24, after rushing for 2,026 yards and scoring 32 touchdowns.

Israel-Premier Tech rider Derek Gee of Osgoode, ON., sits 21st in the General Classification, after the first four stages of the Tour de France. He finished 17th in Stage 1 and Stage 4 on Tuesday.

Ottawa Rowing Club’s Rachel Weber has been named to the Canadian team for the four-day FISU World University Rowing Championships, which begin Thursday in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The University of Western sciences student-athlete is in the women’s eight boat.

Alexandra Schella of Ottawa has been named to the Canadian team for the International Powerlifting Federation’s World Junior Championships in September in Malta. She is ranked No. 2 in Canada in the women’s sub-junior under-63-kilogram class.