HIGH ACHIEVERS WEEKEND WRAP: Silver medals for local athletes Robyn Hardage, Luke Evans at second Ottawa Ironman

By Martin Cleary

Ottawa’s Robyn Hardage is all too familiar with the ultimate gruelling endurance test called the Ironman.

She competed in and completed her first Ironman – a 3.8-kilometre swim to a 180-kilometre cycle to a 42.195-kilometre marathon run – in Lake Placid, New York, in 2011 and has conquered that experience more than a dozen times since.

Not only has she trained for and raced the Ironman, but also Hardage was one of the best national competitors in the open women’s category for several years. For five of the six years between 2017 and 2022, she ranked in the top 25 with best showings of seventh in 2020 and 10th in 2019.

Two years ago, she was the fastest woman in the 40-44 age class in 10 hours, 16 minutes, 30 seconds at the Lake Placid Ironman and qualified for the 2024 world championships in France. At worlds, she ranked fifth in the female 40-44 division with a time of 10:42:27.

Hardage has competed in many Ironman endurance tests in the United States and Mexico as well as smaller 70.3-kilometre versions of that athletic challenge and earned many top-10 results in the overall women’s standings.

But on Sunday she added something special to her endurance resume by competing for the first time in the Ironman Canada – Ottawa race and excelling.

It was raining, heavy at times, and the skies were overcast and threatening, but Hardage rose to the occasion on home turf. She placed second in the women’s category, winning the female 45-49 age class and stopping 93rd overall in a field of 2,407 finishers.

Hardage posted a combined time of 9:52:33 to earn one of her best-ever results in a full Ironman, which covers a total of 226 kilometres. She completed the swim course in 1:07:17 at Britannia Beach, needed 5:06:35 to complete the cycling course and worked her way through the marathon in 3:32:13. Her two transition times were 4:07 from swim to cycling and 2:23 from cycling to run.

Quebec City’s Ariane Lalancette made her Ironman debut and won the women’s race in a commanding 9:09:33, which placed her 17th overall in the race. She slowly worked her way into the top 20, after being 22nd in the swim and 30th after the cycle.

Lalancette had impressive overall time splits – 1:00:28 for the swim, 4:46:10 for the cycle and 3:17:09 for the run. Her respective transition times were 3:02 and 2:44.

Hannah Fraser of Owen Sound, ON, placed third in 9:54:08 from a swim of 1:02:30, a cycle of 5:21:32, a run of 3:23:51 and a combined transition time of 6:14.

Calgary’s Kiyan Sunderji made his 10th career Ironman a memorable one as he posted a convincing men’s victory under dreary weather conditions.

“I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a little kid,” Sunderji told CTV Ottawa. “My dad raced in 2004. He started and I was just one (year old). I was in the stroller watching Ironman Canada at that time in Penticton (B.C.). It has been so amazing. And I’m so excited that I got to show what I can do on the course.”

His winning time of 8:26:53 allowed him to prevent Ottawa’s Luke Evans from capturing his second straight title.

Sunderji was eighth overall when he came out of the water with a swim time of 57:27, but he was untouchable after that. Following the lengthy cycle, his clocking of 4:27:37 surged him into first place and his 2:56:55 marathon time solidified his triumph.

Despite improving on his swim and run times from 2025, Evans’ longer cycling time put his finishing time at 8:38:20. He was second in the swim at 54:18 and fifth overall following a cycle of 4:40:13. But a 2:58:53 marathon run lifted him three spots to second overall.

Trevor Harley placed third at 8:40:18 (a 1:06:57 swim, 4:34:31 cycle and 2:52:40 run).

AUDREY LEDUC ANCHORS CANADA TO COMMONWEALTH GAMES RELAY SILVER

The Commonwealth Games ended on a sweet note for Gatineau sprinter Audrey Leduc and the women’s 4×100-metre relay team in Glasgow, Scotland.

Running the anchor leg, Leduc powered Canada to the silver medal in the speedy, one-lap-of-the-track sprint in 42.76 seconds. Jamaica won gold in 42.65 seconds, while Trinidad and Tobago took the bronze with a season-best 43.07 seconds.

The Canadian team was completed by Sade McCreath, who anchored the semifinal win in 43.15 seconds, Marie-Éloise Leclair and Frédérique Chiasson. The national team also were silver medallists at the World Relays in May in Botswana.

“The women’s relay program in Canada is really strong right now,” Leduc told Sportcom. “We’ve built it up really well in recent years and to be able to win two silver medals is incredible. It’s a good omen for the future.”

Leduc reached the women’s 100-metre final, but placed sixth, and didn’t qualify for the 200-metre final.

The men’s 4×100-metre relay team of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse also earned silver medals, but it was a messy and lengthy affair. The medal ceremony didn’t happen until almost midnight Saturday.

The Canadian men’s relay team was originally disqualified for a lane violation. But head coach Glenroy Gilbert of Ottawa appealed that ruling and won his case. He also successfully defended a second appeal before the Canadians could claim silver.

Australia was the surprise winner of the gold medal in 38.07 seconds, while Canada was runner-up in 38.11 seconds and Nigeria’s season-best 38.12 seconds placed it third.

Eliezer Adjibi of Ottawa’s CANI Athletics didn’t run in either of the two relay races. After being eliminated in the 100-metre heats, he scratched from the 200 metres because of a left-arm injury.

In the women’s 400-metre final, Lauren Gale of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club finished seventh in 52.01 seconds.

“It’s always exciting to be in a final. Very happy to be here. It’s a little cold, a little windy, but we’re all running in the same conditions and I just had to execute my race,” Gale told Athletics Canada.

“It’s interesting to have the whole field on your outside and not be in one of the preferred lanes. It was a good experience and I definitely learned a lot for race modelling there.”

Canada finished third in the Games standings, whether ranked by gold or overall medals with 19 gold, 20 silver and 23 bronze. Australia was the run-away medal leader with 171 in total from 70 gold, 45 silver and 56 bronze, while England was second at 29-45-36-110.

OTTAWA LIONS SCORE 31 MEDALS AT ONTARIO YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club’s runners, jumpers, throwers and you can’t forget the walkers and combined events specialists were at their medal producing best during the Ontario boys and girls’ U14/U16/U18 track and field championships in St. Catharines.

The club made full use of the three-day provincials by winning 31 medals from nine gold, 14 silver and eight bronze. For the 10th time since 2000, the Lions boys’ U18 team finished with the most points to place first in the club standings.

At only 16, Maxime Cazabon was a dominant force in the boys’ U18 competition, pulling in two gold, one silver and one bronze medal, while also participating in the 100- and 200-metre sprints.

Cazabon’s victories were in the high jump at 1.96 metres and the triple jump at 13.59 metres. He earned silver in the long jump at 6.32 metres and the 4×100-metre relay with teammates Alexander Forzley, Ethan Hood and Logan Morrice.

Middle-distance runner Max Gerundin was a boys’ U18 triple medallist, securing gold in the 800 metres at 1:53.35, silver in the 4×400-metre relay with Sebastian Johnson, Declan McGinnity and Hood, and bronze in the 1,500 metres at 4:01.66.

Anabelle Muir, 16, had a successful day jumping and running. She won the girls’ U18 pole vault at 3.46 metres, took silver in the 4×800-metre relay and was fourth in the 4×400-metre relay.

The Lions’ other provincial gold medalists were Noah Hollinger, boys’ U18 decathlon; Eric Combasson, boys’ U14 tetrathlon; Penny Roy, girls’ U16 1,500-metre race walk; Yousef Kamel, Forzley, Morrice and Timothy Kelly-MacLean, boys’ U18 4×400-metre relay and Oscar Lorrain, Jake Claydon-St. John, Aidan Savka and Kelly-MacLean, boys’ U18 4×800-metre relay.

OUTAOUAIS GRIFFONS WIN FLAG FOOTBALL NATIONALS IN OTTAWA

The Outaouais Griffons celebrated a Canadian title close to home at the 2026 Football Canada Club Flag National Championships.

The Griffons pitched four shutouts in their six games at Millennium Sports Park. They took down challengers from Manitoba in the championship game of the under-19 girls’ division 33-18.

Two other teams from the Ottawa-Gatineau region reached their division championship games.

The Ottawa Hawks won both their quarter-final and semi-final games by six points before falling 12-7 in the U14 girls’ final to the Montreal Mavericks, while Outaouais won five matches to reach the U18 girls’ final, which was won by Durham Elite 20-13.

YES, IT’S SUMMER, BUT THERE’S HOCKEY NEWS

Canada defeated Switzerland 7-3 in its opening game of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup men’s U18 hockey tournament in Edmonton.

Forward Brock Chitaroni of the Ottawa 67’s and Marathon, ON, is on the Canadian roster. The six-foot, 190-pound Chitaroni played for the national team last season in the U17 world challenge.

On the women’s U18 side, four defenders and three forwards from Ottawa and Gatineau were named to Hockey Canada’s summer selection camp roster.

The defenders are Elise Gagne and Elizabeth Papineau, both from Gatineau and Stanstead College, and Avery Jones and Jordan Mulvihill, both from Ottawa and Nepean of the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association U22 Elite league.

The forwards are from teams in the OWHA U22 Elite League: Ottawa’s Maggie Hughson from Nepean, Kanata’s Chloe Martineau from Ottawa and Ottawa’s Aniston McCrann from East Ottawa.

UNBEATEN CANADA REACHES CONCACAF MEN’S U20 SOCCER QUARTERS

Canada are scheduled to face Jamaica in the quarterfinals on Wednesday at the CONCACAF men’s U20 soccer championship in Puebla, Mexico.

Both countries finished with pool play with identical records of one win, two draws and no losses. Canada and Jamaica met in their final round-robin game, which ended in a 2-2 tie.

In its previous preliminary matches, Canada shut out Panama 3-0 and tied Honduras 1-1. Canada is aiming for its third CONCACAF men’s U20 title and its first since 1996.

Defender Sergei Kozlovskiy, who plays for Atletico Ottawa, is on the Canadian roster.