HIGH ACHIEVERS: Medal madness for Ottawa athletes at 2026 Ontario Summer Games

By Martin Cleary

Canada’s elite amateur athletes certainly know and have experienced all the steps that have taken them to the top levels of competition.

At the pinnacle, there’s the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Take a step below and every sport has World Cup competitions, whether it’s an annual event or a series of high-quality events throughout their season.

There’s also international and invitational competitions, which allow rising athletes to challenge themselves and push to new heights.

Domestically, each sport stages its national championships, which serve a variety of purposes, and occasionally has competitions against other countries to test Canada’s up-and-comers.

At the base of this competitive pyramid, you’ll find provincial gatherings like annual championships and sometimes a series of events to form a season-long circuit. Then, there’s the biennial Ontario Games, which happen in even-numbered years for Summer and odd-numbered years for Winter.

The most recent Ontario Summer Games were held this past holiday weekend in the Waterloo Region, when more than 4,000 athletes aged 12 to 18 years old competed in 23 team and individual sports across 19 different venues in Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge and area townships.

While some results from the four-day, multi-sport festival have yet to be posted on the Games’ official website, one thing is certain – athletes representing Ottawa in a variety of ways certainly know how to win medals that could motivate and help them climb the competition pyramid.

As of Wednesday, athletes associated with Ottawa, Eastern Ontario Division, Ottawa Valley Golf Association, Capital, a women’s hockey team named after a notable goalkeeper, to name a few affiliations, brought home a combined 140 medals.

The majority of the medals were recorded in canoe-kayak sprint, which seemed to be a dual meet with paddlers from the Western Ontario Division, athletics, wushu and cycling.

The Eastern Ontario Division, which won 73 medals, seemed equally strong in all disciplines (men’s and women’s canoe and kayak as well as the Special Olympics class).

Nathan Goodall had a perfect regatta, striking gold medals in all six of his individual and crew boat finals. He was the fastest in the men’s canoe single over 500 and 5,000 metres and added first-place finishes with Devlin Payne in the C2 500 metres, Kinsley Daniels in the C2 mixed 500 metres and John Moorewood in the C2 1,000 metres. Goodall also was part of the winning IC4 500-metre boat.

Payne’s three-medal competition also included a gold in the IC4 500 metres and a silver in the C2 mixed 500 metres with Jane Schlosser.

Kayaker Mason Cobb collected five medals, including golds in the K2 mixed 500 metres with Liv Hazzan, and the K1 200 metres. He also earned silvers in the K2 500 metres with Hugo Dumont, the K2 1,000 metres with Daniel Seely and the K4 500 metres.

Seely also notched a five-medal regatta with his other silver in the K4 500 metres and bronzes in the K2 500 metres with Luca Ferreira, the K1 500 metres and the K1 5,000 metres.

Daniels was a five-time winner on the women’s canoe side. Besides the C2 mixed 500-metre gold with Goodall, she won the C1 200 and 5,000 metres and the C2 500 and 1,000 metres with Addie Masson.

Masson’s other gold medal was in the IC4 500 metres. She also captured a silver in the C1 500 metres and a bronze in the C1 5,000 metres. Schlosser completed her Games with a full set of medals, including a gold in the IC4 500 metres and a bronze in the C1 500 metres.

Hazzan also struck for three other gold medals in women’s kayak – the K1 500 metres and K2 500 and 1,000 metres with Juniper Code. Her other medal was a silver in the K4 500 metres.

Nykka Ho earned a gold medal in the K4 500 metres and silvers in the K1 500 metres and the K2 500 and 1,000 metres with Laila McGrath.

Kayakers Sarah Madore and Melanie Manion were one-two respectively in both the Special Olympics touring B class K1 200-metre and K1 Pro 200-metre races. They also teamed for the bronze medal in the K2 mixed 200 metres, which was won by Mercedes Laking and Stone Shearer, who also won gold in the K2 200 metres with Luca Ferreira and silver in the K1 Pro 200 metres.

In the A class, Laking also was a double silver medallist in the K1 200-metre and K1 Pro 200-metre tests.

Fletcher Sloan earned three class A medals – a silver with Dylan Gravelle in the K2 mixed 200 metres and bronze in the K1 Pro 200 metres and the K2 200 metres with Alexa Richardson.

Mustafa Hussein was a triple class A medal winner with a gold in the K1 Pro 200 metres and the K2 mixed 200 metres with Kevin Tobin as well as bronze in the K2 200 metres.

Meanwhile in athletics, Leif Gustafsson used his middle-distance speed for gold medals in the boys’ U16 800 metres (two minutes, 0.43 seconds) and the 1,600-metre medley relay (with Kirklon Campbell, Jaydon Sutherland and Teo Longo in 3:37.59). Racing for Team Capital, Gustafsson also was second over 300 metres (37.30 seconds).

Sutherland was strong out of the starting blocks, winning the boys’ U16 100 metres (11.14 seconds) and finishing second in the 200 metres (22.47 seconds).

Ethan Francis, Lyam Reid, Wilson Reed and Mateo Jaksa produced plenty of silver- and bronze-medal efforts, but couldn’t connect for relay or individual gold medals. In the 1,600-metre medley relay, they were second in the boys’ U14 race (4:12.96).

Reid was second in the 300 metres (40.86 seconds) and third over 150 metres (18.58 seconds). Jaksa placed third in both the 800 metres (2:17.77) and the 1,200 metres (3:37.22). Francis was third in the 80-metre dash (10.33 seconds).

Reed made his mark in a pair of field events, placing third in both the high jump (1.39 metres) and long jump (4.53 metres).

Monique Armstrong was a triple medallist in the girls’ U14 division. She ran the anchor leg (800 metres) of the 1,600-metre medley relay (4:32.03) and brought the Capital team, which was completed by Elizabeth Coulibaly, Nala Bantu and Shenelle Green, the silver medal. She also had bronze-medal performances in the 2,000 metres (6:47.34) and the 1,200 metres (3:49.31).

Coulibaly also earned girls’ U14 silver medals for Capital in the 150 metres (19.22 seconds) and the long jump (4.81 metres).

In the open extra run ambulatory category, Shane Vaughan was second in the boys’ 100 metres (13.01 seconds) and the 200 metres (26.82 seconds).

A pair of Ottawa clubs placed in the top seven in the medal table in wushu, a martial art.

Orleans Wushu was sixth with 14 medals from four gold, four silver and six bronze, while Sunny Tang Kung Fu took seventh place with four gold medals, two silver and two bronze for eight in total.

Noah Carter of the Ottawa Bicycle Club was the star of the boys’ U16 cycling competition, winning the road race (56:16), the circuit race (34:31) and the hill climb (1:47.9) as well as placing second in the time trial (23:33.07).

Clubmate Rowan Koolwine was impressive in the girls’ U16 competitions. She won the circuit race (40:22), was second in the time trial (27:40.49) and the hill climb (1:38.1) and was fourth in the road race (1:10.49).

Other notable Ontario Summer Games medallists from Ottawa included:

· Ottawa, boys’ U14 basketball, silver medal, 5-1 overall record, lost 62-48 to Tri-County in the final.

· Ottawa Hawks, girls’ U17 flag football, 4-1 overall record, lost to Hamilton Falcons 20-6 in the final.

· Lukas Zubec, boys’ U19 golf, Ottawa Valley Golf Association, tied for second place, rounds of 68-74 for a two-under-par 142.

· Ceilidh Spare and Florence Ho, girls’ U19 golf, both of the Ottawa Valley Golf Association, tied for third place; Spare shot 77-76 for nine-over-par 153, while Ho scored 74-79-153. Spare and Ho also combined to give the OVGA second place in the girls’ team competition with a score of 151-155-306.

· Team (Kayle) Osborne won the girls’ hockey gold medal with a 4-1 decision over Team (Jennifer) Botterill. Osborne, who is from Munster, plays in the Professional Women’s Hockey League with the new Hamilton franchise, after playing with New York Sirens. Goalkeeper Zoe Dyke of Ottawa and forward Kyle Bray of Ottawa were on the Osborne roster. The Botterill lineup included Ottawa players Cassidi Hopkins, a goalkeeper, and Charlotte Smith, a defender.

· The Eastern Ontario Rugby Union women’s A team, 2-3 overall, defeated SWRU 26-21 to win the bronze medal.

· Melissa Jia and Owen Jiage Zhang of Geng Table Tennis Academy won the U15 mixed doubles bronze medal in table tennis with an 11-4, 11-6, 11-7 win over Ottawa’s Aaron Mingran Wang and Zhixian Chang.