By Isabella Disley & Dan Plouffe
Lauren Gale and David Moulongou showed there’s no place like home at the 2026 Canadian Track and Field Championships.
Both athletes from the host Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club won the first senior national titles of their careers at the June 17-21 meet, cheered on by family, friends and all kinds of familiar faces as they charged down the home straight at Terry Fox Athletic Facility.
“Those are the moments that we do these events for,” smiled Ottawa Lions head coach Richard Johnston, whose victorious Lions each completed one lap of the track, with Moulongou leaping over hurdles as well.
Gale and Moulongou both trained with the Lions as teenagers, they are University of Ottawa graduates, and have now reached new heights after completing their studies and sticking with their hometown club.
“To see athletes develop in our club pathway, progressing year by year, and finally getting rewarded with this, it’s something we really embrace,” Johnston added. “It’s just so heartwarming to see them come across the line and have such a supportive community behind them.”
Canada’s best track and field athletes went head-to-head for five days in a row at the Championships, which started with numerous downpours and even chilly moments, but finished with sun and blue skies.
“No event happens without volunteers, and we have a great community here in the track and field world in Ottawa,” indicated Johnston, who can draw on a dedicated crew of officials who run meets, or multiple meets, every week. “The leadership in this community is huge when it comes to people who are former track and field athletes, coaches, board members, and high school coaches who continue to take time to put into the club season. It’s amazing.”
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In total, local athletes claimed more than a dozen individual medals at the 2026 senior and under-20 nationals, five from Ottawa earned berths for the July 23-Aug. 2 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland at the Canadian team trials, and more are in line to compete at the Aug. 5-9 World Athletics U20 Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Here are each of their stories:
Lauren Gale
There was a torrential downpour before the gun went off for the women’s 400 m on Friday afternoon, as (Lauren) Gale-force winds whipped around the Terry Fox track.
It wasn’t quite a postcard setting, but it was a beautiful moment nonetheless as Gale crossed the finish line first by 0.39 seconds in a solid time of 51.94 in terrible conditions, with devoted supporters braving the storm to help pull her home.
“I have quite a few friends and family in there who are soaked in raincoats, and I know my mom and dad were really excited to see me run,” Gale outlined. “I did it for them, and for the Lions, who I know are gonna be excited that I took a title home too.”
After breaking onto the Canadian women’s 4×400 m relay squad as an alternate in advance of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the 25-year-old two-time Olympian has now made herself a sturdy member of Team Canada. But this was the first she finished atop the senior national podium following two previous runner-up finishes and a fourth-place result last year in Ottawa.
“I’m here every day, and to win nationals on this track is even more special,” Gale underlined. “I think if there was a time to do it, it is now. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m just excited to have that title over my name. I heard my family and friends cheering for me, and I was like, ‘I have to do it, I have to go.’”
There might not have been anyone at the track who knew more people than Gale. She’s a Team Canada star who signed autographs for the kids who participated in the free Bell Starting Line mini pentathlon event at the Championships, and also a live role model for younger Lions who get to see her training at the same track every day.
Gale joked that her mailing address is the Terry Fox Athletic Facility because she spends so much time there. That’s on her own accord of course. Growing up, with her father in the military, Gale didn’t live in one place for very long. Originally from New Brunswick, the former South Carleton High School student moved to Colorado after Ottawa and ran in the NCAA for Colorado State before she chose to return to the capital.
“We hopped around so many places, and Ottawa was just my favourite,” the 25-year-old highlighted. “It’s a big city, but still kind of feels like a little city, and there’s all these festivals, the people are so nice, and the Ottawa Lions were a huge part of why I came back. I knew I would have a great track and field club to be a part of, and my best friends and family are all here.”
David Moulongou
Moulongou enjoyed more of a storybook backdrop for his triumph in the men’s 400 m hurdles as the sun returned on Saturday in time for a huge throng of supporters to cheer the 23-year-old on to a Canadian crown.
The race was decided by a very slim margin, 0.07 seconds. The winner was unclear until Moulongou’s time of 50.09 seconds popped up on the scoreboard, igniting a lion’s roar from the crowd for the champion Lion.
“I can’t even explain it in words. I’m so grateful to my coach, to God, to my family and everyone who supported me,” reflected Moulongou, who ran over to hug his mom after the race, surrounded by many others, and told her “we did it.”
“The reason I do it is for them,” added the Merivale High School grad. “I do it to have fun, and that’s part of the fun. They get to see me, and I get to see them, and I get to experience them, and they get to experience me, and it’s just such a symbiotic relationship, and I love it.”
There were several more hurdles standing in Moulongou’s path to the gold medal aside from the three-foot barriers on the track. One was logistical. Like all Ottawa athletes, Moulongou hasn’t had much of anywhere to train the past two winters while the Louis-Riel Dome was being rebuilt. He’d drive himself to the nearest fieldhouse in Canton, NY twice a week for training and take a team bus down once more with the Lions.
“It wasn’t the most smooth, but it’s one of those challenges that if you overcome, you’re bound to hit some huge standards, like I did this year,” indicated Moulongou, who studied biomedical science and neuroscience at uOttawa. “The dedication, the travel with the friends, the memories I make with the friends off the track outside of racing, having fun before, experiencing different countries – that’s what really keeps me going.”
And the biggest ingredient behind Moulongou’s success came from the breakthroughs he’s made with the help of a mental performance coach.
“I also felt a bit of imposter syndrome. I was a bit shy. I didn’t want to showcase my full talent and kind of be like, ‘hey, I’m that guy.’ I was a bit too nice,” Moulongou detailed. “I’m no longer as nice, and I’m more mature, and seeing the sports psychiatrist helped me not have imposter syndrome, and not be as scared of my own potential, and really be able to focus on my races, and be concentrated during the racing, and not be as stressed and convoluted, so I can really execute my race plan.”
The 2025 FISU Games participant secured the second Team Canada berth of his career with the victory and will now race at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Eliezer Adjibi
Eliezer Adjibi has also firmly booted any notion of imposter syndrome to the curb. The 25-year-old C.A.N.I. Athletics sprinter won a bronze medal in the men’s 100 m in 10.19 seconds, but felt fairly disappointed not to win gold even though the top two finishers were Olympic 4×100 m relay champions Andre De Grasse (10.09) and Aaron Brown (10.15).
“It wasn’t my best race,” noted the Louis-Riel high school grad. “The competition was very strong. I just had to stay in my little zone and try to execute. On to the next track.”
Adjibi’s next race was the men’s 200 m, where he trailed Brown by just 0.04 seconds in 20.37. He took the silver medal by 0.23 ahead of Brendon Rodney, who did not compete in the 100 m at nationals (many top sprinters choose to only race in one event). Rodney has run the final curve in Canada’s three consecutive Olympic relay medals, but Adjibi is continuing to knock on the door for a relay team spot as he flirts with the 10-second barrier and earns repeated national podiums.
“I don’t know,” Adjibi said when asked if he thinks a men’s 4×100 m relay position will be on the horizon. “I’m not the one who makes those decisions. It’s usually the head coach who makes those decisions.
“I’ve shown them I can do a lot. I’ll be able to [jump in when called].”
Adjibi was part of Canada’s relay roster named to the Commonwealth Games team, along with his individual 100 m and 200 m races.
Maëliss Trapeau
As the reigning Canadian champion, Maëliss Trapeau most definitely had a target on her back in the women’s 800 m. In the final under the Saturday night lights, the Lions runner found herself boxed in during the final lap of her race. She nearly fell while trying to break free and ultimately couldn’t chase down Royal City’s Nicole McKenzie before the finish, edged by 0.03 seconds as she clocked 2:01.95.
The 26-year-old Lycée Claudel high school grad was nominated to the Commonwealth Games team even though her bid for a repeat Canadian title fell short, a year after she claimed her first out of any age group.
“I never won OFSAA. At U Sports, I never won,” recounted the former uOttawa Gee-Gee. “I’m not sure when I started to believe that I could win a Canadian title. It kind of happened over time. My coach really believes in me. It’s really my coach who gave me confidence and who helped me progress. I’d say it was really them who believed in me more so than the opposite.”
Trapeau is based in France (where she’s a dual citizen). She chose Marseille as her training base over Ottawa since it gives her the chance to train where it’s warmer, there’s no snow for half the year, and there’s no worry about facility closures, she explained.
“It’s special to race here,” added Trapeau, who arrived in Ottawa two weeks before the nationals to train back on the track where she first started at age 11. “I stayed at my parents’, in my bedroom. It’s really ideal. My old coaches are here, also a teammate. It’s really nice. I’m home.”
Trapeau, who placed 16th overall in her debut for Canada at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, said her season was been “alright” to date.
“For the moment, I’m not super fast,” she indicated. “Three times, I ran 2:00, but I’d like the stopwatch to get down to 1:58 from here until the end of the year, the end of July (for Commonwealth Games).”
Segun Makinde
Segun Makinde, who is now based in Toronto but continues to represent his hometown Lions, picked up a gold medal is his return to his old stomping grounds.
The two-time Olympian served as guide runner for Paralympian George Quarcoo, who won the ambulatory men’s 100 m and the T11 category for athletes with no vision in 11.36 seconds.
“I’m trying to help him do what he needs to do, and happy I can be a part of it,” said Makinde, who’s enjoyed learning from Quarcoo about how to be a guide while sharing knowledge gained from his career. “It’s pretty special.”
Makinde will be headed to the third Commonwealth Games of his career, although first as a guide. The 34-year-old Colonel By Secondary School and uOttawa grad didn’t have great experiences at his first two. He was a relay alternate for the Glasgow Games in 2014 and tore his rectus femoris at the 2018 Gold Coast Games in Australia.
“I am looking forward to it,” Makinde highlighted. “I feel like I have unfinished business. I have to go handle business now.”
Zachary Jeggo
Zachary Jeggo was another Lion who got caught in the massive downpour on Friday, but like Gale, he emerged as a champion, winning the U20 men’s 400 m by 0.21 seconds in 47.56 a year after claiming bronze in the same event.
“The wind and rain were a huge factor, so I wasn’t really running for time or anything in this meet,” signalled Jeggo. “My season has been up and down mentally and physically, so I’m really, really ecstatic to get the win.”
Jeggo had been back in Ottawa for about a month after finishing his rookie season at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C.
“I love Simon Fraser,” indicated the Louis-Riel high school grad. “I love my teammates, all my coaches. Thank you to them. Without them, I wouldn’t be here. They’ve helped me a lot mentally, so a lot of credit goes to them. Obviously, my family and friends have helped me a lot. I’m thankful for everyone who’s helped me.”
SFU recently announced that the Red Leafs will be moving all their sports teams back to the Canadian U Sports loop after previously competing in the NCAA Division II’s Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
Jeggo said he’s looking forward to that change, but he’s very eager to make one more trip south for the World Athletics U20 Championships in Eugene, Oregon. His Canadian title and an earlier 46.72 clocking indoors at the GNAC Championships booked his ticket to the fabled Hayward Field.
“It’s close to Vancouver, so that’ll be a nice trip,” Jeggo highlighted. “I’ve never run at the Hayward Field, so that’s gonna be awesome to run that. It’s a fast frickin’ track, so it’s gonna be good.”
Ange-Mathis Kramo
It was a double-podium for the Lions in the U20 men’s 400 m, as Ange-Mathis Kramo placed third in 47.80, while fellow Lion Ayoub Shangai placed fourth.
The national bronze came on Kramo’s first day of summer vacation, the afternoon after collecting his diploma from Paul-Desmarais high school.
“I think if I had never gone to Paul-Desmarais, track wouldn’t have been a thing for me,” recalled Kramo, who’d been focused on basketball until Patriotes/Lions sprints coach Gordon Cavé suggested he attend track team tryouts. “I made a lot of friends, made new connections, and it was really an amazing school. I really loved it over there.”
Kramo plans to continue running track while studying cognitive or health sciences, although he was waiting until after the nationals to see what kind of offers he might receive before finalizing his destination.
“Track means a lot of things to me, but mainly, I feel like it’s a way to show that I’m here and I’m ready to leave a mark on the world,” he underlined. “I’m ready to give everything I’ve got to be on top of something in a discipline.”
Will Batley
Kramo also placed fifth in a blazing U20 men’s 200 m in 21.08. CANI Athletics’ Will Batley earned the bronze medal in that event with a season-best clocking of 20.82.
The West Carleton Secondary School grad bounced back from a disappointing 10.85 showing for last place in his 100 m event final. Batley set the bar high after etching his name into the Canada Summer Games record books last season as a 17-year-old when he ran the best-ever men’s 200 m time of 20.57 in the U24 competition.
His top 200 m time during his freshman season at the University of Georgia had been 21.41 in January.
Maxime Cazabon
The Lions’ Maxime Cazabon earned the distinction as the youngest high-flying local medallist of the meet. The 16-year-old won bronze in the U20 men’s high jump, clearing 1.96 m. It was his first time competing in the U20 division, but expectation-wise, the bar was high.
“I knew I had to jump well, but I really wanted that podium. I knew the top three were possible, so I was really pushing for that,” Cazabon indicated. “They’re pushing me to get higher, and the guy who got fourth, we were going toe to toe basically for the heights. I like competing with people when they push me.”
The Garneau high school student has already been making a mark in the sport since he took it up in Grade 6 and then linked up with Lions coach Leslie Estwick the next year.
“She usually coaches older people, but she took me at a young age, and we’ve been training for the last four years, and she’s been training me, making me better every year. She pushes me, and in competition, she’s always there to support me,” signalled Cazabon, who enjoys his coach’s positive growth mindset. “Some practices might not be the best, but we still find something to improve each practice.”
A few weeks before nationals, Cazabon excelled at the OFSAA high school provincials in St. Catharines, winning double gold in the junior boys’ high jump and triple jump in his Grade 10 year. Even better, he cleared the two-metre mark for the first time.
“I was really happy. I immediately hugged my coach, hugged my mom, hugged my dad. I had my brother who got to watch me for the first time,” Cazabon recounted. “I came in expecting to win, if I knew everything went well, but to PB like that, a double PB, and finally clear two meters, that was unreal.”
Cazabon, who’s also run cross-country for the Gaulois, is planning to make his debut in the decathlon at the U18 Legion National Youth Track and Field Championships in August.
Kyle London
Kyle London is a little deeper into his decathlon mission and the Lions athlete now has a U20 bronze medal to show for it.
The University of Ottawa student compiled 6,382 points for the club’s second-best U20 score of all-time, finishing with a victory in the 1,500 m to leap onto the podium.
“I went through a bunch of ups and downs,” recounted London, who worried he’d separated his shoulder on his first failed pole vault attempt but managed to get on the board after he tried again at 3.40 m.
“To lift me back up and motivate me to keep on going, my coaches were there, other athletes were there to support me, and I’m really grateful for that, and I never gave up,” added the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School grad who underlined his gratitude to coach Normand Séguin. “You feel like you never want to complete it, but in the end, it’s always worth it.”
On top of his 1,500 m win, London topped the discus standings and was second in shot put and the 400 m. His score was fifth-best among all ages – only two seniors had better totals, although Olympic medallists Pierce Lepage and Damian Warner didn’t tackle the full 10 events at nationals.
Connor Fraser
A back injury suffered before the outdoor season wasn’t going to stop Connor Fraser from earning a silver medal for the third consecutive year in the senior men’s discus.
“It’s a little unexpected. I’ve had some injuries, so I wasn’t coming into it expecting much,” the 22-year-old Lion reflected. “I’m just here to have some fun, and it worked out. It went a lot better than I thought it would. You never know what’s gonna happen.”
The Carleton Ravens thrower flung the discus 49.73 m during the wet competition. Fraser didn’t enter the shot put on account of his injury and plans to focus mostly on his recovery for the rest of this season. He nevertheless enjoyed the chance to compete at the nationals and soak up the unique atmosphere where supposedly rival throwers cheer each other on as each enters the circle.
“I think it’s pretty unique to track, and especially throws,” Fraser said of the camaraderie. “It’s fun because you’re competing against yourself more than anything. It’s a community. Everybody supports each other, and everybody likes training together.”
Daniel Cova
The Lions’ Daniel Cova repeated as a silver medallist in the U20 men’s 5000 m, but left the track disappointed to have missed the win. The Louis-Riel high school grad was hit by a cramp around the 2 km mark and hung back of the lead to place second in 14:54.38.
“It’s not what I expected, to be honest. I really have high expectations for myself,” noted Cova. “I was really looking to run the (U20) world standard (14:08) and go out at that pace, and we did, and I was perfectly in the position to run the race I wanted, but I just was honestly not prepared mentally, and that’s on me, and obviously, I’ve got to learn some lessons from this.
“Luckily I’m young and I still have a lot of games to do, but it was a great experience of running nationals.”
Cova has enjoyed seeing his past training partners since returning home after a redshirt freshman year at Iona University in New York City.
“It was definitely a different experience,” he said of his first year. “It’s a very serious group of guys that take training very seriously. We like to have fun, but mostly, honestly, the fun is so secondary – it’s just focused on being the best athlete you possibly can.”
Mallea McMullin
Mallea McMullin, who just finished Grade 11 at Louis-Riel, was another Lions medallist in U20 competition.
The recent OFSAA senior girls’ silver medallist whipped the javelin 38.51 m under buckets of rain to grab bronze in the U20 women’s division.
“I’m not normally good after the school season, because lots of stuff starts, workouts, and everything,” said McMullin, who was the leading scorer for the Nepean Wildcats junior women’s hockey team this season and will soon begin preparing for Team Ontario tryouts.
She was pleased that the nationals landed earlier on the calendar this season, shortly after setting a national capital girls’ javelin record for the third season in a row.
Thomas Sénéchal-Becker
Thomas Sénéchal-Becker won his first senior men’s high jump title at last year’s nationals in Ottawa, and while he posted a season’s best height of 2.12 m at the 2026 event, it was only good enough for third place this time around.
“This year couldn’t quite get it done, but I did jump better than I did last year, so I’ll take that. I can’t be too mad at that,” reflected the CANI Athletics jumper. “I think the legs were definitely there for a win, but I didn’t quite execute over the bar. That’s what happens when you don’t execute fully. Everything needs to be perfect in high jump, and only part of it was good, so it cost me a gold medal.”
While playing basketball in high school at Louis-Riel, Sénéchal-Becker was invited by a friend to try high jump. He wound up winning his first competition and quickly realized his potential.
“It’s always nice to be good at things, so I kind of stuck with it,” recalled the 2023 U Sports national champion with the uOttawa Gee-Gees who graduated with a health sciences degree. “I kind of fell in love with the sport and now I do it and I’m still in it because I want to see I need to see where my potential lies. I need to hit my best that I can, or I’ll think back on my life, and I’ll wonder what could have been.
“It’s a hobby of mine, of course. It doesn’t pay the bills, but it gives me a really big sense of purpose in my life. I think it gives me something to strive for, and I think that’s what happiness is – it’s always striving for something.
“It’s good working, the grinding. The achievements are fun, and they’re secondary, but they’re kind of bonuses. The work I put in every day to achieve those goals or even get close to achieving them is just as good. That’s the real fun.”
Jessica Gyamfi
Jessica Gyamfi also celebrated her recent graduation from uOttawa, in nursing, by winning a senior national bronze medal.
The 22-year-old flung the discus 46.74 m to claim third place, while she also placed fourth in the shot put.
Diane Guignard
Diane Guignard of the Bytown Walkers also hit the podium with a silver medal in the women’s 20 km race walk, completing 50 laps around the track in 1:48:28.50.
Gatineau’s Audrey Leduc finished the nationals with a bang, breaking the 37-year-old women’s 200 m championship record on Sunday afternoon with her performance of 22.38.
Watching on
Several Ottawa medal contenders missed their shot at the podium due to injury.
Paris 2024 Olympian Jacqueline Madogo withdrew after the women’s 100 m heats as a precaution. She had a hamstring issue, with the wet, chilly June weather perhaps part of the problem, so didn’t want to risk running the final, having been selected to Canada’s team for the first Pan American Athletics Championships from June 26-28 in Colombia.
Recent Louis-Riel grad Jorai Oppong-Nketiah, who won the U20 women’s 100 m in 2024, did not compete at the nationals after a knee injury cut short her final OFSAA meet. The Lions sprinter has met qualification entry standard times for the U20 World Athletics Championships and will hope to be back to health and be named to the Canadian team.
Ellie McGregor missed her high school season and a U20 nationals appearance due to an Achilles issue, but hopes to be back in form come August’s U18 youth nationals.
Lions relay teams
The hosts concluded the meet by setting championship relay records in the senior 4×400 m women’s and men’s relays. Alexandra Telford, Amy Stieh, Sharelle Samuel and Gale were part of the historic 3:36.39 women’s run, while Luca Nicoletti, Safwan El Mansari, James Compeau and Moulongou entered the men’s record books in 3:11.38.
The Lions also won senior women’s 4×100 m and U20 men’s 4×400 m national crowns. Rose Basu, Cora McQuinn, Kierra McGillivray and Amy Zhang earned the women’s points, while Jeggo anchored the Lions men’s team with Kramo, Shangai and Ethan Hood.
“It is a good way to blow off some steam and have fun with friends,” Jeggo said of racing the relay. “Those guys are like family to me, so I’m super glad to share a bit of a spotlight alongside them.”