HIGH ACHIEVERS WEEKEND WRAP: Eliezer Adjibi wins first global title, capital region relay sprinters power Canada into world championships

By Martin Cleary

Ottawa’s Glenroy Gilbert has stamped Mission Accomplished beside his World Athletics Relays assignment in Guangzhou, China.

The Athletics Canada head coach entered five Canadian teams, which included five National Capital Region sprinters, into the global meet and all five qualified for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo Sept. 13-21.

And Team Canada did it in style, winning the gold medal in the inaugural mixed 4×100-metre relay in Canadian record times, and also setting national marks in the mixed 4×400-metre qualifying and women’s 4×100-metre final.

“Mission accomplished for this group,” Gilbert said via Athletics Canada. “We came here to qualify four teams. We were able to do that and come away with a gold medal in the first-ever mixed 4×100.

“We gave a lot of younger athletes, who are new to the program, an opportunity for international experience. All in all, it was a very successful campaign. Now the athletes can go back and focus on their individual events and just get ready for Tokyo later this summer.”

Eliezer Adjibi, who competes for Ottawa’s C.A.N.I. Athletics, was a powerful anchor as Canada not only won its mixed 4×100-metre qualifying heat, but also captured the gold medal in the final.

Canada, which had Sade McCreath, Marie-Éloise Leclair and Duan Asemota deliver the baton to Adjibi, was the class of the qualifying with a time of 40.90 seconds.

In the final, Adjibi crossed the finish line first to secure the debut gold at the World Relays and improve the national record to 40.30 seconds.

“It was a good race,” Adjibi said, referring to the final. “We’ve been doing relay practice for the whole year and (the way) we came on the track and performed was pretty good – a really good feeling.”

By finishing third in its second qualifying race, Canada will send a mixed 4×400-metre team to the world championships. In its final qualifier, Canada was clocked in a Canadian record 3:12.95. Canada was sixth in its opening qualifying race in 3:22.37 and didn’t advance to the final.

Olympian Lauren Gale of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club ran the second leg of the mixed 4×400-metre relay.

Gale also was involved with the women’s 4×400-metre relay squad, which faced stiff competition, but moved ahead to the worlds.

Canada finished seventh in the final in 3:27.84, after placing fourth in its heat in 3:27.28. Gale was joined in the final by teammates Micha Powell of Gatineau, Madeline Price and Zoe Sherar.

Canada qualified for worlds in the women’s 4×100-metre relay with a second-place result in the qualifying heat in 43.11 seconds. In the final, Jacqueline Madogo of Ottawa, Audrey Leduc of Gatineau, McCreath and Leclair showed the team is moving in the right direction, when it went under 43 seconds with a national-record run of 42.46 seconds.

The 2024 Olympic gold-medal team of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse collected the bronze medal in the men’s 4×100-metre final in 38.11 seconds. Canada was third behind South Africa in 37.61 seconds and the United States in 37.66 seconds.

In the qualifying round, Canada was second in the third heat in 38.15 seconds to automatically book its ticket to the worlds.

ROCKLAND NATIONALS WAITING ON CENTENNIAL CUP PLAYOFF CHANCE

Central Canada Hockey League champion Rockland Nationals missed an opportunity to skate directly into the Centennial Cup semifinals on Tuesday, losing their final round-robin game 5-2 to Melfort (Saskatchewan) Mustangs.

Melfort scored four goals in the third period, including two empty-net markers in the final 68 seconds, to prevent the Nationals from improving their record to three wins, one overtime loss and 10 points. A win would have guaranteed Rockland a semifinal berth.

Noah Laframboise scored for Rockland in the second period, which ended 1-1. Anthony Hall had a third-period goal for the Nationals.

The Nationals will have to wait for the final two games in their Group B pool to play out to see if they’ll make the national semifinals for junior A hockey teams.

In its first three games, Rockland lost its opener 4-3 in overtime to the Edmundston Blizzard, but rebounded to outscore Valleyfield Braves 9-4 and Calgary Canucks 7-2.

Following its round-robin games, the Nationals had two players in the top three on the statistical charts. Hall has the most points in the championship with 12 and is ranked second for assists at 10, including five against Calgary. Gabriel Le Houillier is third in points at eight and goals at four.

CAMELOT’S HOGAN BLAIS PLACES SECOND AT NEXTGEN GOLF TOURNAMENT

Three rounds of under-par golf allowed Hogan Blais of the Camelot Golf and Country Club to finish second in the boys’ junior competition at the Golf Canada NextGen Ontario Championships on the Black Bear Ridge course in Belleville.

Blais posted 14 birdies against nine bogeys as he carded a five-under-par 211 score based on rounds of 70-71-70. Toronto’s Eric Zhao of the Bayview Golf and Country Club won the title at 70-70-67-207.

Both Blais and Zhao as well as eighth-place finisher Chase Jerome of the Ottawa Hunt qualified for the Canadian boys’ junior golf championships Aug. 12-14 at the Gowan Brae Golf and Country Club in Bathurst, New Brunswick.

Jerome was tied for first place with Zhao after 36 holes with scores of 71-69-140. He finished with a four-over-par 76 and an even-par 216 total.

The top 20 also included Rowan MacDonald of Royal Ottawa, 73-77-70-220 in 15th place; and Karson Hurlbert of Camelot, 72-75-75-222 and Michael Vivone of Royal Ottawa, 77-72-73-222, both tied for 19th place.

Carlee Meilleur, a Players Club member in Ottawa who lives in Lansdowne, ON, was fifth in the girls’ division at 70-74-77 for a five-over-par 221. She was the first-day leader and second after 36 holes.

Avery Nordman of The Canadian tied for 14th at 77-73-80-230, which is 14 over par.

VIVIER, CODNER ONE WIN SHY OF WORLD JUNIOR MIXED CURLING PLAYOFFS

Dominique Vivier of the Navan Curling Club and Nicholas Codner of St. John’s, NL, narrowly missed the playoffs at the inaugural World Junior Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Edmonton.

By winning four of their six round-robin matches, they finished in third place in Group C. But only the top two teams from each of the four groups advanced to the quarterfinals.

Vivier and Codner defeated England 9-7, Ukraine 11-8, Turkey 8-7 and Romania 10-3, but lost to the eventual top two teams in their group – South Korea 11-5 and Switzerland 5-3, which was their crucial final preliminary match.

Italy defeated Denmark 8-2 in the gold-medal final, while South Korea edged Sweden 6-5 for the bronze medal. When all four groups and 29 countries were brought together, Canada placed 12th overall.

TWO OTTAWA BADMINTON PLAYERS REACH NATIONAL JUNIOR QUARTERFINALS

Ottawa’s Aayush Saba, the three/four seed, won one of his two boys’ U17 singles matches at the Canadian junior badminton championships in Moncton and was eliminated in the round of 16 by Harry Ng (9-16) 21-15, 21-19.

Saba, who was the mixed doubles silver medallist with Merivale High School teammate Celine Karavally at the OFSAA high school championships, lost in the boys’ doubles quarterfinals with Wen Jie Ma, and as well as in the mixed doubles round of 16 with Casey Lin.

Reath Roth of Ottawa and Chloe Wang, the three-four seeds, fell in the U19 mixed doubles quarterfinals to Asher Bedi and Ying Jian 15-21, 21-14, 21-19. Roth also reached the round of 16 in boys’ doubles with Cheney Chenmiao Wang and the round of 32 in boys’ singles.

Read More: Team NCSSAA earns two silver, one bronze medals at OFSAA badminton championships

LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST

· Israel-Premier Tech’s Derek Gee of Osgoode, ON, is in 32nd place overall after the first four stages of the Giro d’Italia. Aiming for a podium finish in the General Classification (overall) class, Gee is 99 seconds behind leader Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek. Gee was 47th, 20th (individual time trial), 29th and 29th in his first four races.

· Rivermead Golf Club’s Robert Fugère has been inducted into the Quebec Golf Hall of Fame. Fugère has won numerous Canadian titles, including the senior men’s match play in 1999, the senior men’s championship in 2005 and the super senior men’s title in 2013. In 2000, he was first in the Quebec men’s senior championship.

· Olympian Adam van Koeverden, who lived briefly in Ottawa while attending Carleton University, has been named Secretary of State for Sport in Mark Carney’s new Liberal cabinet.

· The fifth and final qualifying round for Golf Quebec’s inaugural Junior Skills Tour will be July 5 at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club. The provincial final will be Aug. 11 at the Victoriaville Golf Club.

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