By Tyler Reis-Sanford
In a sport often dominated by young explosive up and comers, sometimes it takes the wisdom of a seasoned vet to get the job done.
Enter 28-year-old Hans Lafleur. The C.A.N.I. Athletics high jumper from Ottawa has competed at an elite level for over a decade, and captured the men’s high jump bronze medal on his home track Sunday during the 2025 Canadian Track and Field Championships at Terry Fox Athletic Facility.
“I just want to compete and go with what the field is presenting,” said Lafleur. “The fact that I was able to put it together, to keep up with the field and to strike when it mattered, I’m happy with.”
Lafleur had some early hiccups, missing attempts at lower heights of 2.00 metres and 2.04 m than his final clearance of 2.08 m.
But that nonetheless gave Lafleur the second fewest misses among the six athletes who tied at 2.08 and scored him the bronze medal behind champion Thomas Sénéchal-Becker, his CANI teammate who jumped 2.11.
Lafleur credits his experience and coaching from Lotfi Khaida, a two-time Olympian for Algeria, for his ability to remain calm and keep his composure. The Franco-Cité high school and Algonquin College grad said that the longer he’s been jumping the more competitive each year has gotten.
“You can’t come into a championship just thinking about the height. It’s about keeping a clean sheet,” explained Lafleur, whose personal record of 2.13 came in 2017. “When you are in trouble like I was early, it’s just about keeping calm, these guys can jump what you can jump, but you have to remember, ‘I can jump what they can jump too.’”
Lafleur said that although he hasn’t seen a huge increase in the maximum height that jumpers can reach, more jumpers are able to compete with the top competitors, which means that any jumper could win at any given meet.
Today, that was Lafleur’s 22-year-old CANI Athletics teammate. Lafleur and Sénéchal-Becker, a U Sports champion who cleared 2.17 m for the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in 2023, were often amping each other up before their jumps, and enthusiastically celebrating the other’s successes.
“It’s family at this point,” Lafleur said of his CANI teammates and coaches. “We’re together six days a week all year round, we know each other’s queues, we know each other’s buttons. The fact that it’s in Ottawa, it felt like practice, so we were just feeding off each other.”
Another CANI jumping teammate of Lafleur’s, Bryson Patterson-Blasse, will have to wait until next year for another chance at the podium. Finishing ninth was not what the 30-year-old long jump specialist expected, but a minor calf injury on his third attempt left him without much of a choice.
“Where I was sitting, I was tied for eighth, but his second best jump was better than mine,” recounted Patterson, who remained in good spirits and cheered on his competition for the remainder of the event. “It is what it is, but I’m glad [the injury] is nothing crazy. Unfortunately it didn’t go as planned, but I’m glad [the 2026 national championship] is here next year, so hopefully I can bounce back.”
Managing his body to negate injuries is nothing new for Patterson-Blasse, who has been competing at the senior level for more than a decade.
The John McCrae Secondary School and Algonquin College grad said he does lots of rehab and physiotherapy, and understands that his body isn’t the same as it was 10 years ago.
“I had to learn to do my stretches,” joked Patterson-Blasse. “Instead of just finishing my practice and leaving, now I’m like, ‘I gotta stretch every time now, I’m getting older.’”
Patterson-Blasse’s personal best in the long jump is 7.78 m – a distance that would have won this year’s nationals by .20 – but he hasn’t been able to top that mark since he recorded it in 2017. Despite the long wait, Patterson-Blasse believes he still has it in him to perform at even higher levels than ever before.
“I actually just had my indoor season, this year I jumped a 7.52 which is an indoor personal-best for me. I know I still have it,” underlined Patterson-Blasse, who also had a CANI teammate competing in his event, with Joshua Foster placing fifth at 7.16, while he exited with 6.94.
“I’ve had some good attempts where I’m close to my personal best,” Patterson-Blasse continued. “Last season outdoors, I had a 7.50. It’s right there, my body is still like, ‘hey, we can hit this,’ it’s just a matter of when it’s going to happen.”
Off the track, Patterson-Blasse balances his intense training schedule with a day job working for the government, something he jokingly said makes him “a typical Ottawa native.” Even with the intense hours of training, physiotherapy, and injury recovery, Patterson-Blasse said the work-life balance is enjoyable, and that he loves the opportunity to travel and meet new people while competing.
“If I didn’t like this so much, I probably would’ve been done years ago,” highlighted Patterson-Blasse.