By Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
Jorai Oppong-Nketiah is the hottest, and somewhat hidden, young women’s sprint sensation Canada has ever seen. Her performances this past summer suggest that’s the case, and the record books confirm it.
At August’s Royal Canadian Legion youth national championships in Calgary, the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club athlete set a championship record time of 11.43 seconds to win the under-18 women’s 100 metres.
About a month earlier, the 16-year-old won the Canadian U20 championship in 11.39 (and she ran faster at 11.38 in heats). That time would have placed her third in the senior women’s category at the Canadian Olympic team trials, which were being held at the same time in Montreal.
As the top Canadian, Oppong-Nketiah proved herself worthy of competing at the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships, but she was one year too young to be selected by Athletics Canada.
Roxane Tedga and Savannah Blair, who came in behind Oppong-Nketiah in 11.71 and 11.94 at the nationals, wound up representing Canada, finishing 26th and 22nd respectively in late August.
Oppong-Nketiah’s personal-best time from the U20 nationals would have landed her one-hundredth of a second away from a podium place at the U20 worlds.
She’s now recorded the three fastest 100 m times by a U18 woman in Canadian history.
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Oppong-Nketiah says she’s very proud of her achievements, but is still adjusting to the pressure that comes with it all, having only entered competitive track in high school.
“Every time I run, people always expect a lot more from me,” signals the Grade 11 student, who had to sit out her last high school track season after transferring to Louis-Riel from Pierre-de-Blois, on the heels of 100 and 200 m novice girls’ titles at the 2023 OFSAA provincial championships on her home track.
Oppong-Nketiah says she feels nervous before each one of her races, but that she does her best to zone in on the task at hand.
“I don’t talk to anyone during warm-up or call room,” she highlights. “I just try to calm myself down.”
Oppong-Nketiah’s coach with the Ottawa Lions, Gordon Cavé, loves watching the end product on the track.
“Jorai is all about competition,” he underlines. “From the past two seasons working with her, I can tell that, come competition, she turns on another level that hasn’t even been seen in training.
“It is amazing because you can’t always count on her to perform.”
Oppong-Nketiah has four practices a week with the Lions, splitting her training equally between her favourite race, the 100 m, and speed endurance work for the 200 m (she was also U18 national champ in the 200, and second at the U20 event).
“Jorai is a pleasure to coach,” Cavé adds. “She comes to practice ready to work all the time. She applies what you tell her on and off the track. You can’t really ask for anything more.”
L.A. 2028 Olympics a target
While Oppong-Nketiah had been eager to take a run at making the 2024 Olympics last summer, she’s certainly got her eye on making the Canadian team for the Los Angeles Games in 2028, when she’ll be 20 years old.
The youth nationals took place at the same time as the Olympic athletics competition being held in Paris, and that created a big buzz at the track, with many of the athletes talking about Olympic results and their predictions throughout the event.
“I just kind of kept searching what happened between my races. It was like, look it up and then go back to warming up for finals,” Oppong-Nketiah recounts. “But a lot of people were telling me what was going on, and after my races, once I got back to my hotel, I watched the replay.”
The young athletes revelled in seeing Canada reach the final in both the women’s and men’s 4×100 m relays, especially when the men won gold.
“I look up to all of them,” Oppong-Nketiah notes. “I hope to be like one of them one day.”
The Canadian women’s relay team included Gatineau’s Audrey Leduc and Ottawa’s Jacqueline Madogo, who Oppong-Nketiah also got to race against this season, which was “a fun experience,” she indicates.
There’s no doubt Oppong-Nketiah would love to add a third local runner to the group passing the baton come the next Olympics.
“I just tell myself I have to keep working hard to get that point,” she underlines.
Lions savour sweet summer
Oppong-Nketiah wasn’t the only Lion to hit the podium at the Legion youth nationals, and she wasn’t the only record-breaker either.
Zachary Jeggo, who also attends Louis-Riel, was the club’s most-decorated athlete of the meet. His biggest win came in the 400 m hurdles, where he bested both his own U18 men’s club record as well as the championship record of 53.02 with his sizzling performance of 52.67.
Jeggo also took home a silver medal in the U18 men’s 400 m, alongside medals and club records in both the 4×400 m and 4×100 m relays.
Competing mostly against provincial branch teams, the Lions’ team of Jeggo, Ammiel Williams, Kyle London and Ange-Mathis Kramo ran to silver in the 4×400 m in 3:19.07, while Jeggo and Kramo teamed with Jimmy Lu Langley and Jesse Costanzo for 4×100 m bronze in 42.03.
The other Lions youth national medallists were Mallea McMullin (U16 girls’ javelin gold), Quinn Coughlin (U18 women’s 400 m hurdles gold) and Kramo (U18 boys’ 200 m silver).
Lions athletes earned a pile of success provincially this summer as well. They won 26 medals at the Ontario U20/Open Championships, plus an equal number from the U14, U16 and U18 provincials.
At the Ontario Summer Games, two Lions earned a trio of medals – Maxime Cazabon (U16 men’s high jump gold, 300 m bronze and sprint medley relay bronze) and Olivia Schuler (T34 wheelchair 100, 200 and 400 m bronze).
At the World Masters Athletics Championships in Sweden, Wendy Alexis won the W65 100 m gold and 200 m, while Liz Maguire earned silver in the W55 1,500 m.
This fall, the Lions will host the OFSAA Cross-Country Running Championships on Nov. 4 at Mooney’s Bay.
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