~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
By Adam Beauchemin
It was a golden homecoming for Ottawa’s Maeliss Trapeau, who stormed to a first-place finish in the senior women’s 800 metres on Saturday night at the 2025 Canadian Track and Field Championships.
Trapeau earned the first senior gold medal of the meet for the host Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club as she crossed the finish line at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility in 2:01.79 to edge out Royal City’s Jazz Shukla at 2:01.95. The Lions’ Sydney Smith placed fifth in 2:04.08.
“It’s so nice. I’m from the Lions, so it’s like being home,” said the 25-year-old University of Ottawa grad. “A lot of people are cheering me on. It’s really nice to hear my name.”
Trapeau’s triumph comes eight years after three-time Olympian Melissa Bishop from the Lions wowed the crowd with a Saturday night 800 m victory of her own.
That same year, Trapeau placed eighth for Lycée Claudel at the 2017 OFSAA high school provincials. The Academic All-Canadian went on to win a 2019 U Sports 4×800 m relay bronze medal with the uOttawa Gee-Gees and an Ontario University Athletics individual bronze medal in 2020.
~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
Then she moved to France and became the French under-23 national champion in 2021. Trapeau placed sixth at the French senior nationals last season before breaking out with a sparkling new personal-best time of 1:59.09 at a race in Toulouse in May of this year.
Now crowned a champion in her first appearance at the Canadian nationals since 2019, Trapeau said she’s eager to represent Canada on the world stage.
“I’m really happy to be back home. It’s like I never left,” underlined Trapeau, who could clinch her place on the start line for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo by running 1:59.00 by Aug. 24.
Several more local athletes racked up podium performances on Saturday at the nationals, led by Zach Jeggo, who won his second medal of the meet despite a heavy workload.
The recent Louis-Riel high school grad sped to a 52.39 finish in the men’s U20 400 m hurdles, securing first place by 0.46 seconds to earn his second medal following U20 400 m bronze.
“It’s good. It’s hard on the body. After every race I go to the massage chair and get reconstructed,” smiled Jeggo, who earned U20 hurdles silver last year.
“It’s a nice upgrade. The gold’s a lot better than the silver,” he added. “It feels good to actually get it done this year, and I’ll be back next year hopefully to defend it.”
Distance runner Daniel Cova also earned his second medal of the championships by running a 3:53.02 in the U20 men’s 1,500 m, good for third in the event.
“It’s great. I never thought I’d have two national medals this year,” highlighted Jeggo’s Lions teammate and fellow recent Louis-Riel grad.
Cova placed second in the 5,000 m race on Friday to earn his first medal of the Championships. While the 5k is a relatively new race for the runner (it was only his second time competing it the event, Cova was well acquainted with the 1.5 km distance.
“It’s a different kind of race from the 5k, a lot more tactics involved going into that last 800 there,” he noted.
Cova pushed up to the front of the pack early in the second lap, and led the pack through the second and third splits.
“When I saw that second lap, I was confident that this was way slower than I usually go, so I was just like ‘hammer, hammer, hammer’ from there,” he recounted. “I was like, ‘I can come around these guys, I know I’m faster than them,’ and then stay there and stick with the top guys. They came around me, but if I didn’t make that move, the pack would’ve been super tight and I wouldn’t have been able to outkick everyone.”
While it’s been a long season for the future Iona University racer, Cova already has his sights set on next year’s nationals.
“I came in with a little bit less expectation because I had such a long track season, but now that I got it, I have the confidence to do it again next year,” signalled Cova, who teamed with Jeggo for an OFSAA 4×400 m relay gold medal alongside his 1,500 m and 3,000 m bronze. “Especially since I’ll have my second year at U20 next year — all these older guys will be gone.”
A trio of local hurdlers from the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club attacked the 400 m senior final as well on Saturday.
Alexandra Telford and Rosemary Holmes ran in the women’s event, earning third and fourth place respectively.
“The race went really well,” said Telford, who cracked the one minute mark with a 59.86 effort to take home a bronze medal. “My biggest thing was that I wanted to have a race that I felt good about, that I attacked the hurdles and I think that’s what I achieved.”
Telford narrowly missed out on the podium at the 2023 Championships, and missed last year’s event due to injury, which made her podium finish all the sweeter.
“This year I’m back,” she underlined.
Telford was closely trailed by her teammate Holmes who finished the race in 1:01.23.
“Today it was about just focusing on getting over the hurdles and having a clean race,” Holmes indicated. “I just have to work with how the legs are feeling and I’ve been having soreness the last month or so I’ve been dealing with, so pretty happy to just feel kind of fresh this morning and get over all the hurdles. “
Both Holmes and Telford, who shared an embrace after their race, said they were happy to be competing at home, and also glad to be competing alongside one another.
“It’s really awesome to have Alex to race with – somebody to always strive to race with and chase each other, so I’m super happy for her clinching that medal. It’s really awesome,” Holmes outlined. “It’s so fun. I feel like the Lions have such a strong long-hurdle team at the moment. So just being able to feed off each other and share in each other’s wins has been incredible.”
Meanwhile, David Moulongou of the Lions and uOttawa Gee-Gees ran in the senior men’s 400 m hurdles finals, placing fifth with a time of 52.65.
“It was an alright race. I got the reps in. I would have wanted more, just as I did in Germany, but count your blessings,” said Moulongou, who was only a week removed from competing at the FISU World University Games overseas.
“I came through the line healthy,” he added. “I had a second part of the season that was very healthy, I could train without worrying about injuries. So I’m just blessed that I could at least cross the line and put together a performance that I’m somewhat proud of.”
Ottawa’s Barbara Bitchoka, competing as an unattached athlete, finished in a tie for second place in the senior women’s high jump with her leap of 1.77 m. She cleared every height – seven in total – on her first attempt before failing at 1.80 m. Representing CANI Athletics in 2018, Bitchoka missed out on a podium that time on tiebreaker due to failed attempts at earlier heights.
The Lions’ Maria Okwechime had the fourth-best leap in the senior women’s long jump at 6.11 m, while Jessica Gyamfi was fourth in the senior women’s discus and Waverley Lyons was ninth in the U20 women’s high jump. CANI Athletics’ Joshua Foster and Bryson Patterson-Blasse were fifth and ninth in the senior men’s long jump.
Glebe Collegiate Institute grad Jocelyn Giannotti continued her rise with a sixth-place finish in the U20 women’s 1,500 m with a time of 4:32.40.
“I was worried that my legs were going to be pretty dead because of the semifinals, but I mean it’s the last race of the season so I might as well go for it,” signalled the University of Guelph Gryphon.
While Giannotti was worried about her legs giving out down the home stretch, she said she found it within herself to push through.
“I know the race is going to hurt regardless, so might as well hurt and be going fast,” added Giannotti, who dropped over 10 seconds off her personal-best time in the race this season. “Just push through; the race is almost over and I know I’d be disappointed in myself if I finished the race not giving it 100%, so I had that in mind.”
In the U20 men’s 200 m preliminary events, Ange-Mathis Kramo (21.28) of the Lions and U20 100 m bronze medalist William Batley (21.02) of CANI both punched their tickets to the finals.
Also in the U20 category, Ottawa Lions Safwan El Mansari qualified for the men’s 800m final with a time of 1:52.40 and Eli Mordel landed a spot in the 110 m hurdles final with a time of 14.51.