By Dan Plouffe
Ottawa’s Jacqueline Madogo knocked .12 seconds off the national record time set at the Paris 2024 Olympics as she and the Canadian women’s 4×100-metre relay team returned to the global stage for the World Athletics Championships in Japan.
Racing alongside Sade McCreath, Marie-Éloise Leclair and Gatineau’s Audrey Leduc, Madogo earned a seventh-place finish in the women’s 4×100 m relay final. Their time of 42.82 seconds in pouring rain came a little short of the Canadian-record mark of 42.38 they established in the heats to qualify for the eight-team final.
“Obviously this was our first world final. It was a great experience, but I know we’re all competitors and we’re a little bit disappointed,” Madogo told CBC Sports after the race. “But I know our time will come. We’re a very young team and we’re just building momentum as of now.”
Madogo ran a 23.23 earlier in the meet to finish 33rd overall in the women’s 200 m.
Maeliss Trapeau of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club finished 16th in the women’s 800 m in her world championships debut. The 25-year-old qualified through the heats to reach the semi-final round, where she finished sixth in her heat in a personal-best time of 1:58.90.
“I’m happy to have a PB,” Trapeau underlined in her post-race interview with the CBC. “It’s good. I can’t complain. I’m here. I’m with Team Canada. It’s the best way to finish my season.”
The Lions’ Lauren Gale was 13th overall in the women’s 4×400 m relay. Gale brought Canada from seventh up to fourth after her second leg in the heats, but the team’s time of 3:26.33 fell 1.62 seconds short of qualifying for the final.
Gale was the top Canadian in the individual women’s 400 m, missing the semi-final round by two places in a time of 51.56 to finish 26th overall.
Eliezer Adjibi of CANI Athletics qualified through the men’s 100 m heats to earn a place in the semi-finals en route to a 24th-place finish overall.
Local canoe paddlers dominant for Canada at Olympic Hopes regatta
Eight gold medals and one silver are returning to the nation’s capital from the Olympic Hopes canoe sprint regatta in the Czech Republic thanks to the standout performances from Madeleine Beauregard, Isabel Lowry and Abbigail Haines.
The Rideau Canoe Club’s Beauregard was golden in four U17 women’s canoe races at the unofficial youth world championships, while Lowry scored three gold medals and Haines earned a gold and a silver.
After Lowry and Haines received their gold and silver medals for their 1-2 finish in the C-1 U17 women’s 200 m, the Carleton Place Canoe Club teammates were back on top for another gold medal win less than an hour later for the C-4 U17 women’s 500 m with Megan Thompson and Grace Theunissen.
Beauregard and Lowry teamed up for C-2 U17 women’s 200 m gold, while Beauregard and Haines topped the C-2 U17 women’s 500 m, and Beauregard was the champion in the C-1 U17 women’s 500 m.
Carleton Place’s Roenn Hodgins and Rideau’s Wesley Bartlett were also part of Canada’s contingent in Czech Republic.
The Olympic Hopes regatta concluded a sparkling summer for the young local paddlers.
Lowry enjoyed a triple-gold medal performance in July at the world junior championships, including one in the C-4 with Beauregard.
Lowry was also a triple-gold medallist at August’s Canada Summer Games to go alongside a silver, while Beauregard won two gold and three silver in St. John’s and Haines earned two gold and two silver.
Women’s soccer Ravens beat Gee-Gees for first time in a dozen years
The Carleton Ravens women’s soccer team beat the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees for the first time since 2013 on Friday night with a 3-2 home-field victory and then proved it was no fluke by earning a 1-1 tie in the road in the Sunday afternoon rematch.
Carleton went down 2-0 against Canada’s #3-ranked team in the first half of their first match on goals by Erica Tsang and Gracie Somers, but struck back with consecutive goals by Lauren Illman and the winner by Mikayla Moser in the span of 10 minutes early in the second half.
Nibo Dlamini and Olivia Crombie scored for uOttawa and Carleton respectively on Sunday. The Ravens are now 5-2-1 and the three-time reigning Ontario-champion Gee-Gees are 4-3-1.
The Carleton men’s soccer team got goals from five different players in 4-0 and 1-0 road victories at Laurentian and Nipissing to remain unbeaten at 4-0-3.
Quarterback Tristan Lefebvre threw for a program-record 498 yards on 24-for-29 passing as the Carleton Ravens football team topped York 48-36 on the road to improve to 2-2. The Gee-Gees couldn’t quite complete the comeback from a 30-10 deficit to league-leading Laurier as they lost 30-24 to fall to 3-2.
The Gee-Gees women’s rugby team lost its first game of the season in a 17-5 home-field defeat to first-place Laval, while Carleton thrashed Sherbrooke 56-19 in town to improve to 2-2.
Canada advances convincingly to Women’s Rugby World Cup championship game
Canada will play in next Saturday’s Women’s Rugby World Cup final against host England following a 34-19 victory over New Zealand in the semi-final.
Ottawa set a North American record for women’s rugby attendance in Canada’s send-off match in August, and now the Canadian squad will be part of the largest women’s rugby audience ever, with 82,000 tickets sold out for the championship match.
University of Ottawa Gee-Gees products Maya Montiel and Claire Gallagher played 20 minutes apiece in Canada’s first two matches against Fiji and Wales but have not been selected to the team’s match day roster since then.
Tyler Branchaud awarded Pan Am silver medal with Canadian U23 men’s softball team
Metcalfe’s Tyler Branchaud celebrated a unique silver medal with Team Canada at the U23 Men’s Softball Pan American Championship in Argentina.
Canada finished with a 5-2 record behind 5-1 co-champions Mexico and Argentina, whose final match was interrupted by rain and could not be completed.
Canada claimed the silver medal behind the pair of gold medallists and Venezuela took the bronze, as all four teams secured qualification for next year’s World Cup in Colombia.
Branchaud, an outfielder, had two hits and scored two runs in 10 at-bats over the course of the tournament.
Laury Milette 5th at Tour de Gatineau, prepares for senior worlds debut
Ottawa Bicycle Club product Laury Milette of Gatineau warmed up for her elite women’s world road cycling championships debut by finishing as the top Canadian in fifth place overall at the Tour de Gatineau UCI race.
The top four riders were all from Team Visma-Lease A Bike, while Milette finished six seconds back of the winning time in 2:57:08 for the 122.1 km circuit. Milette also placed seventh in the criterium.
The 22-year-old previously raced for the first time in Europe at the 2019 world junior championships and now she’ll compete for Canada next Saturday at the senior worlds in Rwanda.
At World Cup BMX racing events in Argentina, Nepean BMX brothers Jakob and Zakary Kaiser placed 25th and 29th respectively in their opening men’s U23 competitions. Zakary, 17, then advanced through three rounds to reach the semi-finals in the following World Cup race at the same venue to finish 12th overall, while Jakob, 19, placed 21st in the second event.