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A huge team of 46 Ottawa athletes are set to compete at the St. John’s 2025 Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland. The Ottawa Sports Pages will be sending out a free daily email newsletter with recaps, previews and profiles throughout the Aug. 9-24 national youth multi-sport event.
By clicking on the submit button, you consent to receive the above newsletter from the Ottawa Sports Pages. You may unsubscribe by clicking on the link at the bottom of our emails. Ottawa Sports Pages | 21 Kolo Dr., Ashton, Ont., K0A 1B0 | 613-261-5838
By Martin Cleary
If you asked Connor Fraser a few years ago: “What’s your sport?,” his answer would have been hockey.
Whether playing centre or right wing, he was accomplished at Canada’s national winter sport and skated at the AAA level with the U14 Ottawa Jr. 67’s, the U18 Kanata Lasers and the U18 Kemptville 73’s teams as well as the U15 and U16 Ottawa Sting squads.
When it came time for his OHL draft year, there was mild interest. But this was the COVID-19 pandemic time, only a few games were being played in bubble situations, recruitment was down and he missed time because of a back injury.
Fraser wasn’t drafted and wasn’t invited to an OHL camp so he decided to play his final season (2021-22) of competitive hockey with the Ottawa Jr. Canadians junior B team for a more relaxed brand of the game.
While hockey was the key sport in a childhood that saw him play competitive soccer and basketball, there was another sport lurking in the background – track and field.
Introduced to athletics in elementary school like many of his peers, he grasped onto the idea of being a throws athlete with two short spurts at Immaculata High School and found success with minimal training.
When Fraser started track and field in Grade 9 at Immaculata, teacher/coach Neil Purves brought him into his throws circle. Purves was passionate about discus, shot put and javelin, and Fraser bought into it and found early success.
Fraser qualified for the 2019 OFSAA track and field championships in the boys’ midget (now novice) class, after only a couple months of training. He placed fourth in discus and 10th in javelin.
The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 and 2021 high school track and field seasons.
When track and field returned in 2022, the Grade 12 student-athlete debated about picking up his throwing implements again. The Immaculata program had a new coach, who wasn’t familiar with the throwing events. Fraser decided to step up and coach the new throwers, while working on his technique and training in a condensed time frame.
At the 2022 OFSAA championships, he strengthened his hold on athletics being his sport for the future by winning the boys’ senior silver medal in discus and placing fourth in shot put.
He’s only flown farther since. Fraser won Ontario U20 discus and shot put titles in 2023, as well as a national U20 shot put crown. A couple weeks ago at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in Ottawa, he captured the silver medal in the senior men’s discus with his toss of 50.23 m.
“Discus was my event in high school and it’s incredible to see my progression in shot put,” Fraser said in 2023.
“I feel when the discus is flying well for me, I enjoy it more than shot,” added the Carleton University criminology student, noting that his six-foot, one-inch frame may be better suited for the shot put. “The shot put will probably play out better for me, but there’s something about the discus that’s so much fun.”
It was in 2022 when Fraser attended an early high school meet at Terry Fox that he was approached by Tim Nedow, a coach and youth program director with the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club.
Nedow competed at the Tokyo and Rio Olympics, was the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games silver medallist and the Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.
After a conversation, Fraser felt, if he was going to pursue the throws at a higher level, Nedow would be the perfect coach.
“I started with Tim and got better every day,” Fraser highlighted. “He’s incredible. There’s nothing like having a coach like him.
“It’s nice to have him as a coach. He’s a great person and he’s always there. And he knows how to react when you’re having a bad competition.”
This is now Fraser’s fourth summer working with Nedow, and he’s not alone, with the group of Lions throwers growing and excelling rapidly.
Fraser is getting ready to represent Ontario at the 2025 Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland, and he’ll be joined by another Lions pair in the St. John’s circle.
Just a year and a half into his throwing journey, Liam Davis of the University of Guelph Gryphons placed fourth in the senior men’s shot put at the recent nationals.
Jessica Gyamfi of the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees will be competing in her second major multi-sport games within the space of a month, having just returned from the FISU World Student Games in Germany.
In between, Gyamfi earned a fourth-place performance in the senior women’s discus and a fifth-place finish in the shot put at the nationals back in Ottawa.
There will be a pair of CANI Athletics jumpers joining the throwing trio in field events at the Canada Games.
Returning for his second Canada Games, Thomas Sénéchal-Becker will be the undeniable favourite in the men’s high jump. He equalled the top height achieved at the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games, but lost out on tiebreaker to take silver. But he’s since gone on to win the 2023 U Sports title with the Gee-Gees and then won his first senior national men’s title in Ottawa two weeks ago.
Joshua Foster will also enter the Canada Games with high hopes, having earned fifth-place and silver medal performances in the senior men’s long jump at the 2025 and 2024 nationals respectively.
There will also be two local athletes on the track in St. John’s.
After withdrawing from his final high school season at West Carleton due to injury, sprinter Will Batley of CANI Athletics showed he’s back in fine form at the nationals with a U20 men’s 200 metres silver medal and a 100 m bronze.
The Lions’ Zach Jeggo sped to a gold medal in the men’s U20 400 m hurdles at the nationals, as well as a U20 400 m bronze.
The recent Louis-Riel high school grad will be moving to Burnaby, B.C. later this summer to attend and race for Simon Fraser University.
“It was great to run on home turf one last time,” Jeggo told the Ottawa Sports Pages at the nationals. “I have Canada Games later on too and I’m jumping on a plane to B.C. after that.”
Ottawa at the Canada Games Daily Newsletter
A huge team of 46 Ottawa athletes are set to compete at the St. John’s 2025 Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland. The Ottawa Sports Pages will be sending out a free daily email newsletter with recaps, previews and profiles throughout the Aug. 9-24 national youth multi-sport event.
By clicking on the submit button, you consent to receive the above newsletter from the Ottawa Sports Pages. You may unsubscribe by clicking on the link at the bottom of our emails. Ottawa Sports Pages | 21 Kolo Dr., Ashton, Ont., K0A 1B0 | 613-261-5838p
