Injuries fail to hold back Jorai Oppong-Nketiah from repeat U20 national title

By Adam Beauchemin

Ottawa sprinters brought the heat Friday night at the Canadian Track & Field Championships in front of a packed house at Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

Seventeen-year-old phenom Jorai Oppong-Nketiah became a two-time gold medallist in the under-20 women’s 100 metres after running an 11.48 seconds to win the final by .07, although she said it was no easy feat.

“This year was more rough due to all my injuries, but I thank God that I’m here and I did it again,” said Oppong-Nketiah, who won the 2024 U20 gold in 11.39.

Not only has she dealt with a knee injury this season, Oppong-Nketiah was also racing with a strained shoulder which she suffered in the preliminary rounds early in the day.

“My knee is gone, but now, I strained my pec muscle. But, it’s okay. I have to fight through it,” signalled the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club runner.

To make matters even more difficult, the finals had to be restarted four times due to multiple false starts.

“I was getting frustrated, but at the end of the day, I still have to stay concentrated because I came here for a reason,” added the Louis-Riel high school student who will enter Grade 12 in the fall.

To keep a cool head through it all, Oppong-Nketiah turned to prayer.

“I pray — prayer really gets me through all of this,” she underlined.

Oppong-Nketiah will have a day of rest before running in the 200 m on Sunday, where she’ll have the chance to race for a second title.

“I’m excited. I’ve been working on it, so hopefully I get double gold,” she highlighted.

William Batley was another local sprinter who’s been battling injuries, which wiped out his senior high school track season with West Carleton.

But the C.A.N.I. Athletics talent showed an excellent return to form in earning the U20 men’s 100 m bronze medal Friday, although it came down to a photo finish.

Batley was awarded an official time of 10.555, just a hair ahead of fourth-place finisher Jahnie Leslie, who ran a 10.558. While the ending was too close to call at the time, Batley didn’t doubt his chances.

“I had that feeling I had him, but I just wanted to see the clock just to make sure,” he recounted. “I knew it was going to be down to like thousands of a second. I knew it was going to be close. But it just felt good to see, that I just nudged him out.”

This was his first time Batley competed in the 100 m in three months since suffering a hamstring injury. After a strong performance in his first event, he’s excited to try his luck again at the 200 m on Sunday.

“Just to be and to see that I was able to place, I was overjoyed, I was so excited,” Batley indicated.

Local sprinters also landed on the podium in the senior women’s and men’s 100 m. Canadian 2024 Olympic team members Jacqueline Madogo and Eliezer Adjibi both claimed bronze medals in their respective 100 m races.

In the women’s event, Madogo ran 11.21 to claim the third spot behind Gatineau’s Audrey Leduc (11.06) and Sade MacCreath (11.09).

In the men’s 100 m, Adjibi claimed third with a 10.21 effort. He finished closely behind gold medallist Daune Asemota (10.12) and silver-medalist Aaron Brown (10.13). Seven-time Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse withdrew from the nationals due to hamstring tightness. Both Adjibi and Madogo, the 2023 Canadian women’s 200 m champion, are entered in Sunday’s 200 m event.

Recent Louis-Riel high school graduate Zach Jeggo earned a bronze medal in the U20 400 m, running a 46.87 in the one-lap race.

“It’s not bad. Third place two years in a row, so nothing to complain about,” said the Ottawa Lion. “I had (400 m) hurdles this morning, so the legs are a little tired, but overall, I’m pretty happy.”

Jeggo will be moving to Burnaby, B.C. later this summer to attend and race for Simon Fraser University.

“It’s great to run on home turf one last time,” he reflected. “I have Canada Games later on too (in St. John’s, Nfld.) and I’m jumping on a plane to B.C. after that.”

Fellow Lion Ange-Mathis Kramo ran alongside Jeggo, finishing in sixth place.

“My start was pretty good, that first 100-150 was pretty good,” Kramo said. “On the end of the back stretch, I lost a bit of my speed, but I held on until the end and did pretty good.”

Kramo, who’s competed mostly in 100 m and 200 m events previously for the Lions and the Paul-Desmarais Patriotes, this is his first year running in the 400 m and his time of 47.33 was a new personal best.

“Pretty happy with it, and looking to go even faster next year,” he signalled.

Kramo will be competing in the 200 m later in the meet, while Jeggo will be returning to the track Saturday afternoon to compete in the U20 men’s 400 m hurdles final.

“This is a great meet overall. I just love it, it’s so fun,” added Jeggo, who qualified for the hurdles final with the second-fastest time in preliminaries.

Olympian Lauren Gale narrowly missed out on the podium in the women’s 400 m, but claimed the all-important fourth-place spot that should put her in line to run relays at September’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The 25-year-old Gale, a two-time senior national silver medalist in the event, ran 51.80 to finish less than 0.30 seconds behind 21-year-old champion Savannah Sutherland from Saskatchewan.

Ahead her Thursday hear, Gale told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Tyler Reis-Sanford that she was focused on recovering from injuries and looking ahead to Tokyo.

“To be honest, I’m focused on worlds right now, and facing some injury, so I’m in a little bit of a setback right now,” she said. “This nationals might not be my peak, my star moment, but I’m still gonna come out and compete with these awesome competitors and see how it goes.”

Racing at the Canadian championships for the first time since 2019, University of Ottawa Gee-Gees product Maeliss Trapeau secured a spot in the women’s 800 m finals.

Trapeau had been competing out of France, and she earned the top place in the qualifier by running a cool 2:03.83.

Sydney Smith will also be representing the Lions tomorrow in the 80 0m finals, after placing fifth in the preliminaries with a time of 2:04.53.

Battling through injuries, the Lions’ Mallea McMullin fell short of her best mark in the javelin throw to place seventh in the U20 event.

“It’s the worst I’ve thrown in a while, but I’ve had some up and down practices and some injuries, after all,” she told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Farrah Philpot. “So, it wasn’t horrible, considering I just recovered from an injury. But it’s not what I hoped for.”

McMullin’s best throw on the day travelled a distance of 36.24 m, which was well short of the 42.60 m mark she reached earlier this season at the high school city championships, where she set a new meet record.

Perhaps a silver lining for the multi-sport star from Louis-Riel high school was having her parents in the crowd to cheer her on as she threw against Canada’s best.

“It’s cool how nice the track looks right now and how many fans there are and both my parents are here watching because it’s in Ottawa, so that’s great,” she highlighted.

Ottawa Lions field athletes, Brianna Asiamah and Jessica Gyamfi finished fourth and fifth respectively in the women’s shot put. Asiamah threw for 13.13 m and Gyamfi for 12.68 m.

– with files from Farrah Philpot & Tyler Reis-Sanford

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